


When the Knife Comes Down

by RegalGirl94



Series: Scream [1]
Category: Scream (TV)
Genre: Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, Embedded Images, F/F, F/M, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-23
Updated: 2019-02-23
Packaged: 2019-11-04 14:43:57
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 12
Words: 51,723
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17900093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RegalGirl94/pseuds/RegalGirl94
Summary: Athena 'Tyler' had her whole world pulled out from under her. A new start in Lakewood should be what she needs, whether or not she wants it. But when her classmates start dying, she finds herself pulled into a very dangerous game with a serial killer. Even if she does come out the other end alive and well, she will be forever changed. OC/OC





	1. Jules of Athens

**Author's Note:**

> Now bulk posting my Scream (MTV) fanfiction series.
> 
> Trailer here;  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0fXvmnCg7s&t=1s

It was like a dull claw ripped into her life and tore it to shreds, leaving her with only the aftermath. It was a single moment, one meeting and it was all blown to hell. And suddenly, her life wasn't the same. Athena was starting her senior year off on the worst foot. She knew no one, she was just the new girl, the odd one.

She arrived at the Tyler household with a duffel bag and school bag of her belongings. A mini U-haul was coming in with the rest of her important belongings. She had stared up at the suburban two story house for nearly twenty minutes before the suit from child services nudged her towards the front door.

"It's okay, sweetie," the woman cooed. "They're a good family. And they're going to love you no matter what."

She took a deep breath and let it out slowly before letting the older woman with her lead her to the door and knock on it three quick times.

That had been a week ago. Mr. and Mrs. Tyler let her adjust to being in their home with their son and daughter before having her start at school. It was difficult going from being an only child with parents that gave her their undivided attention and space, to this nuclear family with a life outside of her. She was trying her best to find a place to fit in but she felt like she was swimming in her skin that was too big for her.

The weekend before she was to start at school, there was a knock at her door and the next moment, Mrs. Tyler poked her head in, "Hey sweetie, what are you up to right now?"

She looked up from her sketchbook and gave a short smile, "Hey Diana. I'm not busy if that's what you're asking."

The woman had blonde hair and dark eyes, and looked solemn at the use of her first name by the younger girl. She shook it off and said, "Well, our next door neighbors are here to meet you. Maggie and her daughter Emma – she's around your age. And coincidentally, Maggie and I have been best friends since middle school."

"Do they know..." she trailed off, "...about me?"

Diana nodded lightly, "Maggie does, for obvious reasons. Emma doesn't and I respected your wishes and asked Maggie not to tell her."

"Thank you," the teenager said quietly before standing up. "Let's go meet them then." She followed Diana down the stairs where the Tyler's twenty-two year old son, Ian, was laughing with a blonde woman with glasses and teenage girl with dark blonde hair and dimples. They all turned when Diana and she walked in and the blonde woman stepped forward, hugging her.

"Hello sweetie," she squeezed once and pulled away, still holding her shoulders in her hands. "I'm Maggie, a friend of your—of Diana's."

"Hi," she tentatively replied. "I'm Athena."

Maggie faltered for a brief moment before stepping back and putting an arm around the other teenage girl, "This is my daughter, Emma."

Emma smiled in a friendly way and put her hand out, "Hi, nice to meet you."

Athena awkwardly took her hand and shook it, "Nice to meet you too."

They had an awkward snack in the kitchen until Maggie suggested, "You know, Athena, if you want, Emma can show you around school since it'll your first day."

Athena felt awkward at the prospect since it seemed like Maggie and Diana were pushing her and Emma to be friends. But Emma smiled, "I really don't mind. I can even show you around town too and introduce you to my friends."

It didn't sound like fun on Athena's part. She was mostly a loner, with a few close friends. She liked to observe life, stay out of the spot light. She wasn't good at starting over and making new friends. But she'd feel bad if she completely blew off Emma, and she promised Diana she'd try to make life at Lakewood really work.

So she nodded, "Sure, sounds nice. Thanks."

They kept chatting for a little while before Emma excused herself to go meet up with her friends, "Do you want to come?" she asked Athena at the last moment. She wasn't stupid, she knew Emma wanted to go hang with her friends alone.

So she shook her head, "Thanks, but maybe a rain check."

Emma nodded with a smile, "Okay, well I'll see you on Monday."

For the rest of the weekend, Athena barricaded herself in her room until come Monday morning, there was a knock at the door and Ian poked his head in, "Ready to go?"

It was time for her first day at the new school. All she knew was that she didn't want to stand out, so after standing in front of her closet for fifteen minutes, she had slipped on a pair of jeans and a gray knit sweater. She looked up when Ian came in and jumped off the bed, grabbing her bag and walking out of the room with him, "Sure, let's go. And um, thanks for giving me a ride to school. Someone will drive my car here by next week or so."

Ian faced her seriously, "I really don't mind."

Feeling slightly out of place in the serious moment, she just nodded and kept walking down the stairs, "Okay, let me go play new kid."

Walking through the grass of Washington High School, she kept my book bag close to her body as she could. The school was buzzing about something – some video of two girls kissing or something – as if that was so scandalous in 2015. She hadn't seen the video and she didn't really care to. It was none of her business. She just made her way to her class as quickly and quietly as possible, sitting in the very back. She pulled out her sketch pad and started finishing up a pencil piece of a puppy she had seen the other day.

Emma and a group of kids walked into the room and she had them come sit next to her, "Hey Athena, these are my friends. This is my boyfriend, Will," she rested her hand delicately on the pale brunette boy's chest briefly before gesturing to a blonde girl with bangs to her eyes, "this is Brooke Maddox." She then pointed to the tan boy with wavy black hair who wore a flirty smile, "That's Jake Fitzgerald."

An Asian girl next to him smiled for herself and did a little wave, "I'm Riley—Marra. Our friend Nina is playing hooky today but I'm sure you'll meet her tomorrow."

"Nice to meet you all," Athena muttered, going back to her sketching.

Soon other teenagers started milling into the room and taking their seats and the hot-for-teacher, Mr. Branson, began class with roll call, "Okay, when I say your name just raise your hand or say here. If you prefer to be called something else, just let me know. And let me know if I butcher your name."

"Erin Adams."

"Here."

"Will Belmont."

"Here."

"Emma Duval."

Emma tentatively raised her hand and said, "Here," getting a smile from her boyfriend, Will, sitting next to her.

"Audrey Jensen."

"Here," the girl said in a deadpan next to Noah.

"Noah Foster."

The scholastic boy raised his hand enthusiastically, "Here."

"Brooke Maddox."

"Here," the blonde winked with her answer.

"Nina Patterson."

There was a lull of silence as no one claimed that name. Emma and her friends looked between each other, each thinking something different of the girl's absence.

"Jules Tyler."

There was another lull of silence. Branson repeated the name twice more before the new girl in the back raised her hand, startled, "That's me, but, um, I go by Athena."

This earned her curious looks from the students and teacher but Mr. Branson simply accepted her answer and wrote it down on his roll call. With that done, he began class, "Cavemen made fires. Those fires cast shadows, and those shadows created fear. Men have been obsessed with scaring each other every since."

The other students were casting looks at the two new people sitting in the back. Brooke turned to Riley and whispered salaciously, "His name's Kieran Wilcox. He just moved here from Atlanta."

"Brooke," Mr. Branson called her attention to the front of the class. "Would you please tell us which genre originated with 'The Castle of Otranto'?"

Brooke stared up at him with disinterest, "The Castle Genre?"

"The Gothic Genre," Kieran answered in a deep voice.

"Thank you," Mr. Branson nodded, before facing the class. "Guys, look, I get it. Nobody wants to sit around reading 500 dusty pages about monks and curses. But nobody's forcing to watch 'The Walking Dead.'"

Jake Fitzgerald, the resident burn out of Washington High, raised his hand and asked, "Is 'The Walking Dead' on the midterm?"

Riley rolled her eyes, "Zombies are not literature, Jake."

"Why not?" Kieran piped in again, a grim smile on his face. "George Romero, Horace Walpole, it's all the same bones."

"Or the same rotting flesh," Mr. Branson agreed. "Kieran's right. Gothic genre is all over TV right now. You have 'American Horror Story,' you have 'Bates Motel,' 'Hannibal.'"

"What about 'Texas Chainsaw' or 'Halloween'?" Jake asked again, his voice dragging down in dullness at the end of his words.

"Uh, those are slasher movies," Noah piped up, his lip quirking at the ends at the chance to get into one of his favorite interests. "So, you can't do a slasher movie as a TV series." He paused, looking to Mr. Branson for permission to continue. After the teacher nodded, he went on, "Well, think about it. You know, girl and her friends arrive at the dance, the camp, the deserted town, whatever. Killer takes them out one by one. 90 minutes later, the sun comes up as survivor girl's sitting in the back of the ambulance watching her friends' bodies being wheeled past. Slasher movies burn bright and fast. TV needs to stretch things out. You know, by the time the first body's found, it's only a matter of time before the bloodbath commences."

It was like he jinxed it or something because by the time first period was over an announcement came over the intercom informing everyone that the absent girl, Nina Patterson, had died last night, " _Nina Patterson's death is a great shock. Once you've seen the grief counselor, you're free to return home. Classes will resume tomorrow._ "

Athena headed to the front desk and waved for an office employee's attention, "Hey, hey, hey – can I just go home?"

The plump older woman shook her head, "It's mandatory, honey. That means you have to."

Athena rolled her eyes, "I have no idea who this girl even is. This is my first day here."

"I don't know what to tell you, hon," she replied. "I'll try and push you up so you can talk to the counselor and move on."

"Thanks, I guess," she mumbled before going to sit in the corner where Emma, Jake, Noah, Riley and the new guy were all sitting.

Jake was on his phone grumbling about WiFi and Riley frowned at her friends, "Guys, Nina was murdered in cold blood. Do you not even care?"

Emma stared ahead, "It just doesn't seem real."

"Here we go," Jake cheered, still staring at his phone. "One of Nina's neighbors tweeted that her throat was sliced ear to ear." Athena flinched at the mental picture. "The press is all over this. They're playing the whole 'Maybe Brandon James is Back' angle."

Emma's face dropped even more if that was possible, "Brandon James is dead." She got up and walked off in a huff.

Athena kept quiet. She knew the history of Brandon James – how his rampage dubbed Lakewood Murderville for the next two decades. The new guy, Kieran, two seats down from her asked though, "Who's Brandon James?"

Noah piped in, as a resident expert, "Uh, he killed a bunch of students twenty years ago. He, um... he cut some others up," he pulled out his phone and quickly showed a grainy photo of a deformed boy to them, "This is him. Emma's dad got stabbed. He almost died. Brandon had Proteus syndrome, like the elephant man. People say he was born a monster, but I think he was bullied and beaten into one."

Kieran gave him a skeptical look, "And you know all this... why?"

Noah shrugged, unperturbed, "I don't know. Some guys like sports. I like serial killers. And Brandon James is my Dallas Cowboys. He was a classic case of the deformed kid who lived in the shed. Mom home schooled him. Dad was ashamed of him. His older brother, Troy, was the only one who cared about him. Whenever he went out, he wore this post-op surgical mask. They tried to fix his face a few times."

Kieran looked more curious now, "What made him start killing people?"

"Rumor is he fell in love," Noah intoned. "His brother said Brandon was obsessed. Wrote her anonymous love letters. Made her little carvings. Brandon found her at the Halloween dance. He got up the nerve to talk to her. It went okay at first. But then a bunch of drunk jocks jumped him. They thought they were saving her from a monster. After a lifetime of taking it, something in Brandon snapped. He killed five students by the time he was done. The manhunt ended at Wren Lake. The girl agreed to meet him. Nobody ever knew who she was."

The office clerk was true to her word and got Athena moved up the list so she could quickly speak with the counselor and explain that she never knew Nina and just moved to town. Once the school shrink was satisfied that Athena wasn't traumatized, she signed her out to go home. She walked to the front of the school where Ian was waiting parked in the parking lot. She hopped into the passenger's seat and sighed.

Ian looked sideways at her as he pulled out of the parking lot, "Good first day?"

"Well I didn't even make it to second period, so not bad," she replied sarcastically. "Though apparently one of my classmates was murdered last night so that put a damper on things."

"I heard about that," Ian mused. "Nina Patterson – Lakeview's resident party girl."

She shrugged, "Whatever. At least I don't have to endure the rest of this first day of school bullshit."

"It can't be that bad," Ian dragged out his words. "Did you meet anyone?"

"Emma introduced me to her friends but they don't seem like my kind of people," she answered.

"What are your kinds of people?" he asked, drumming his fingers on the steering wheel as he drove them into their neighborhood.

"Not stereotypes," she droned. "I had a few friends and they were all unique and fun. Not dumb jocks or socialites."

"Had?" Ian asked. "Didn't you keep in touch with them?"

"After what happened?" she asked, raising an eyebrow at him sarcastically. "What would I tell them? All they know is what was released and even with that they haven't called me."

"How would they know to call you?" he asked her. "They have no idea where you are."

"Dido does," she responded quietly, thinking back on the girl. "She's the only one I talked to before I left."

"Who is Dido?"

"She was my girlfriend," Athena deadpanned.

Ian's eyes widened a little, "Oh! So you're..."

He let the last word drag on and trail off until Athena took pity on him and smirked, "I'm bi, Ian. That an issue?"

"No, of course not," he responded quickly, easing her little nerves. "I just feel cheated sometimes. You're this whole person that I don't know and I always feel like I should have."

"You're right," she sighed. "But there's nothing we can really do about that other than get to know each other now."

"Right," he agreed as he pulled into their driveway.

The walked inside and Diana called out her greetings to them from the kitchen, "You're back early. Hours early? What's going on?"

They walked into the kitchen and Ian filled her in on the situation, "Apparently Nina Patterson was killed last night. They canceled classes today."

Diana gasped, her hands flying to her mouth, "Oh that's awful. She's a friend of Emma's, I think."

"Yeah, they mentioned her earlier this morning," Athena commented. "They all thought she was playing hooky today or something. Apparently it was pretty grizzly though. The media is already spreading trash like Brandon James is back."

Diana's face paled, "That's impossible. He's dead."

"Yeah, obviously," Athena played along. "But this town has a reputation because of him so the next nasty murder is gonna paint his name all over it again. No matter who really did it. The office was buzzing about her boyfriend though. Apparently nobody's seen him since the weekend either."

"I never liked that boy," the older woman scowled. "He's always been troubled, his foster parents could never get a handle on him. I wouldn't be surprised if it was him. But I hope if it wasn't, that he's okay."

"Speaking of foster parents," Athena quickly cut in to change the subject. "In first period, the teacher called my name on roll call – as Jules."

Diana and Ian shared an awkward look as the older woman started to speak.

But Athena carried on, "You agreed that I could use my own name here."

"It must have been a clerical error," Diana excused. "All that shuffling of your paperwork must have lead to a lot of confusion at the school office. Don't worry, I'll have your—I'll have Till sort it out when he gets home from work. The ladies in the office still have a crush on him – like High School never ended for us."

"When is Lana getting back?" Ian asked, taking away the edge of awkwardness. "I'm surprised they didn't let the middle school out too in the wake of the news."

"Oh, she'll be home at the regular time," Diana waved her hand. "Does anyone want cookies?"

"No, I'm good," Athena mumbled, excusing herself to her bedroom. Night had fallen eventually when her cell phone rang. She answered it after the third ring, "Hello?"

"Hi, Athena," it was Emma's voice. "It's Emma. I hope you don't mind, Diana gave my mom your number and she gave it to me. There's a party tonight – like a memorial for Nina but with booze. I was wondering if you wanted to come. I'm getting ready to leave soon."

"Oh, um, that's okay, really," Athena flinched as she heard herself sound like a bitch. "I'm grateful for you trying to include me really, and I mean no offense, but I didn't know Nina and I'm just gonna feel awkward there as my first big outing as the new girl with a bunch of strangers. If you really wanna be friends, can we just start smaller? Like lunch or something."

"Yeah, yeah, of course," Emma was quick to assure her. "I'll see you tomorrow and we can set something up?"

"Sure, thanks," she said quickly before hanging up with a soft, "Goodnight, have fun at the party."

About an hour into the night there was a knock at her door, Ian peaking his head inside, "Hey, we're about to watch a movie downstairs. And there's someone I wanted you to meet."

"Who else could there possibly be out there for me to meet at this point?" she asked wryly.

"My best friend, Sam," he answered. "He works a couple jobs so he's usually busy, but he's free tonight so I called him up."

"Is there something special about this guy that you want me to meet him?" Athena asked. "I was just gonna turn in early."

"You can't keep avoiding us, Athena," he responded seriously. "We are family, finally."

"Ian," she sighed. "I don't really understand what you all expect from me. I'm a foster kid for all intents and purposes and you all have each other."

"You have a place here with us," he insisted. "You always would."

"No, you expect me to take her place," she cut in. "I'm not Jules."

"I know you're not," he insisted. "I know that. But that doesn't mean that you can't be part of this family now that you're here. Just come on down, watch a movie, meet Sam, make an effort. This is weird for us too but we're trying."

She sighed, "You're right." She ran a hand through her hair and set aside her computer, "I'll be down in a minute. I'll change into pajamas if we're all gonna cuddle up on the couch."

"Okay, thank you," he said quickly letting himself out.

Athena sighed for what felt like the millionth time. This whole situation was backwards to her. She felt like this family had a void in their home and in their lives and just expected her to fill as if she had been there the whole time. She had had her own home and her own family and her own life until it was all ripped away from her. Now she was with the Brady Bunch like a recast way late in the series, where everyone acted like nothing had changed and it was all the same but they couldn't fool everyone else.

She walked downstairs and let herself doddle in the hallway, listening to the chatter of Till and Diana with their kids, and another deep voice, arguing over what film to watch.

Lana's youthful voice with the tell tale lilt of middle school inflection – the kind that made every sentence sound like a question – begged for  _The Lucky One_  or anything based of a Sparks book. Ian immediately rebuffed the idea of watching a chick flick and wanted a food old fashioned slasher film like Texas Chainsaw.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Ian," Diana voiced. "Nina was just killed last night – and it was brutal. It doesn't seem to be in good taste."

"That's nonsense," Ian rebutted. "We don't even know Nina. We're supposed to manicure our daily lives because someone in town was killed?"

"Dude," the deep voice admonished, it must have been this Sam character.

She figured she might as well make her appearance since she told Ian she would join them. But she felt awkward just walking in like she actually lived there, when she still felt like a visitor. So she cleared her throat as she arced into the living room from the hallway, causing everyone to look up at her.

Diana smiled welcoming her inside, "Come sit, sweetie. We're just picking a movie."

"Does it require a battle to the death?" she asked sarcastically. "Cause that's what it sounded like when I walked up."

Till laughed, the gruff kind of laugh that came from the chest. He was a big man that would look intimidating to anyone who didn't know him. But Athena got the sense that he was a big softie underneath it all, and it showed in his smiles when he thought she wasn't paying attention to him, and his refusal to push her limits when it came to her role in their family. He was also the strong, silent type for the most part. Not really speaking unless he felt he could actually contribute something to the conversation.

She took a seat at the end of the couch, the only place left alone. Diana and Till were curled up on the large plush chair. Lana sat on a bean bag chair at their feet. Ian and Sam – assuming the only one she didn't know was Ian's friend – were on the on the couch. Sam was a big guy, not fat, but bulky and broad shoulders. He looked like he could lift anything he came across. His skin was dark, naturally tan and his hair black and cut close to his head. He had a long face, with deep brown eyes and a straight nose. He was sitting down, but Athena could tell that he was tall, taller than Ian or any jock at her High School. Maybe even taller than Till.

She had to be seated next to him. She shuffled against the arm of the couch and awkward looked at him and then Ian, waiting.

"Oh," Ian realized. "This is Sam. I forgot, you don't know him actually. Sam this is... Athena."

He looked at her and she felt for the first time that she was meeting someone who didn't expect anything out of her, and didn't look at her and see someone else entirely. At least, out of all the people who knew who she really was. "It's nice to meet you, Athena," he held out his hand for her.

She shook his hand quickly and looked to the group, "How about we watch a marvel movie? Avengers or something?"

"Yes!" Ian cheered, pointing at her thankfully. "Finally a good suggestion."

"Hey," Diana smiled playfully. "I've suggested good movies before."

"Sure," Ian scoffed. "Like Catwoman?"

Diana pouted and crossed her arms, "Avengers it is."

Athena looked around, seeing Diana and Till cuddling, Diana's hand reaching down to brush her daughter's hair absentmindedly. During the actions scenes, Ian and Sam would make comments to each other. They all seemed at ease with each other, like they all fit. Meanwhile, she sat straight as a stick next to Sam, watching the film with little interest. She didn't even fully realize when it was over until Ian and Sam were standing up and bickering over the next movie while they went to the kitchen to make popcorn.

Seeing the tell tale signs of conversation in Diana's eyes, Athena excused herself to the kitchen under the guise of grabbing a drink. Sam and Ian were arguing over who was better, Iron Man or Captain America.

"Stark is a bad ass," Ian insisted. "He's rich, gets the girls, and made himself. Captain America got made by scientists."

"Steve Rogers has integrity," Sam argued. "He has morals and way more emotional endurance than Tony Stark. Stark still can't get over his daddy issues while Rogers has dealt with losing every person he ever knew and living in a totally different era."

"Athena, settle this," Ian put a hand on her shoulder as she went to walk past him to the fridge. "Who is the better super hero, Iron Man or Captain America? I say Iron Man, he says Captain America."

She rolled her eyes, "Wolverine leaves both of them in the dust."

"Come on!" Ian whined. "That's such a cop out!"

Athena shrugged, making her way into the fridge to grab a bottle of water. "It's true. Logan survived decades of war and torment and losing people he loves only to lose his memory and wander lost for years, only to go through more war and torment and losing people he loves again and again – and he's way more of a bad ass than Iron Man, come on."

"She's got a point there," Sam admitted. "But come on, if you had to pick out of just Iron Man or Captain America."

"Then Captain America, hands down," she answered, earning a theatrical whoop of victory from Sam and disgruntled look from Ian.

The microwave beeped and Ian turned to it to pull out the steaming bag of popcorn, grumbling playfully as he walked out of the kitchen.

Athena was about to follow when Sam let out a cough, "Hey, Athena..."

She shifted on her feet to face him, giving him her attention.

"How are you doing with all of this?" he asked it so casually she was almost thankful.

Almost. "Who asked you to check up on me? Ian? Better yet, Diana?"

He let out a little laugh, "No, nothing like that. I'm being real here."

"Forgive me if I don't believe you," she quipped, opening her bottle to take a sip.

"That's okay, but it's true," he assured her. "I know how it feels to be taken out of my home and dropped with strangers."

"Ian said that you live with your mother."

"I do now," he said. "She needs a lot of help. But I wasn't allowed to live with her for most of High School because she couldn't take care of me. I never got along with my foster homes too. But here, you've got a good set up. Way better than I ever had it."

"So I should just enjoy it?" she asked sarcastically. "Not complain, right?"

"I'm not saying it's perfect, or that you don't have plenty to complain about," he backtracked. "You're going through a lot right now and I know that it's a big transition, being here. But all the people in the living room love you without really knowing you. It'll take time for you all to get to know each other. But in the mean time, I just wanted to tell you that you can talk to me if you don't feel like talking to anyone in the house."

"While that's appreciated," she began awkwardly, "it's not necessary." With that said, she walked out of the kitchen, but veered past the living room and up the stairs to her room. She set her bottle of water down on the desk when she felt a shiver go through her spine. She turned and saw that her window was open, which she knew she had closed before going downstairs.

She walked over to close it when she noticed a piece of paper resting on the window seat underneath the sill. She picked it up and unfolded it, gasping slightly upon what she read. In cut out letters from different sources, the note read; ' _Are you Jules or are you Athena? Better figure it out, because your secret will come out._ '

Immediately she ripped up the note into many little pieces and walked into her bathroom to flush them down the toilet. She didn't know who knew, and why they would want to mess with her, she just hoped they didn't really know the truth, and just the acceptable scandal.

She walked the paper whirl down the water to make sure that it was gone before settling into her bed. She hoped it wouldn't become anything, but the goosebumps on her arms wouldn't go away.


	2. Home Invasion

" _For AQR Web Radio, welcome to Autopsy of a Crime. This is Piper Shaw pod-casting the murder investigation of Nina Patterson, day-by-day as it unfolds."_

Athena ran around her room trying to get her school things in order and put on a racer back purple dress to get ready for the day, grabbing a military jacket for the morning chill and her sketchbook, as always. Her ear buds were well and truly in her ears as she listened to this new podcast she found while googling Nina Patterson and Brandon James.

" _So, it's been four days since this brutal slaying and local Sheriff Clark Hudson is still looking for Nina's ex-boyfriend, Tyler O'Neill, as a person of interest. With this town's blood-soaked history, echoes of Lakewood's homegrown psycho, Brandon James, are everywhere. Walking the streets, you can hear terrified locals wondering, could he be back?"_

A knock on her door made her pause the podcast, "Yes?"

Ian poked his head in, "Ready to go?"

"Yeah, I swear my car will be here soon," Athena promised, grabbing her backpack and walking with him outside.

"It's really no problem, Athena," Ian promised. "It's not like I have anything to do what with taking a year off."

"You didn't have to do that," she commented as they got into his car.

"Someone needed to be a buffer here," he excused. "Besides, I wanted to help you with the transition. It's my job."

Athena accepted this response and just sat in the car quietly until they got to the High School. She gave him a quick thank you before getting out of the car when he slowed down enough and made her escape. They had gotten there a bit early so she had time. She looked around for a bench or something to hang out on for a few minutes when she noticed crowds of teenagers flocking around a giant shrine to Nina Patterson. There was a large blown out photo of her on the chain fence and hundreds of notes and cards and flowers stuck in the fence.

Athena made her way to see what all the fuss was about. There were a lot of well wishes and notes of yearning and missing her. Athena wondered if there was anything like this for her back home, because people really didn't know what happened to her. But she sincerely doubted it. She wasn't a social butterfly or anything. She had a few close friends and for the most part she stuck to herself. There were no mass shrines for her.

Her musings were interrupted when she heard a boy shout out, "Someone's ass is toast!" She turned to see one of Emma's friends – Jay or Jake or something – running into the crowd, looking around with steam coming out of his ears. He found his target in Noah the Nerd Kid and ran up to him, clenching his shirt in his hands and held him up against one of the nearby pillars. Noah's friend, the shorter girl with the short hair, followed but didn't do much in the ways of stopping them.

"What's up?" Noah asked nonchalantly. As if he wasn't about to be pummeled.

"Was it you, nerd?" the jock sneered close to his face. "Was this payback for the lake?"

"Was what payback?" Noah asked, confused.

"My truck," he spat, holding up his phone with a picture of a black truck with red paint misspelling out the word douche. "It went viral..."

Noah started to gape when his friend tried to break in, "Hey, hey, leave him alone."

"Can it, les-beast!" he shouted at her, and Athena felt her blood boil.

She cast a quick look around for teachers and such and saw no one other than other students. So she marched right up to Jake and tapped on his shoulder, "Hey Jake. I'm Emma's friend, remember?"

He turned to look at her with a mixture of anger and flirtatiousness, but before he could say something obnoxious, Athena reared back her perfect fist and smashed it into her face. He was so stunned that he let go of Noah and stumbled to the ground, holding his cheek and nose. "You little bitch!"

"Yeah, go ahead and tell on me, steroids," she taunted. "Then you'll have to explain to everyone in school that a girl got the best of you. Just get lost."

He glared at her but wisely kept quiet and stormed off with a quasi-threatening look at her and Noah. Noah and his friend stared at her in some shock and awe before Noah did a little slow clap with humor, "Bravo. Where'd you learn to punch like that?"

She shrugged, "My, uh, dad taught me. He was a fighter. Anyway, nice work on the truck."

"How do you know I actually did it?" he challenged, feigning an indignant look.

She narrowed her eyes at him playfully, "You looked unbearably smug the whole time Jake was threatening you. What did he do to piss you off?"

"He and his douche friends put Noah out on the lake when he passed out at a party," the girl explained with a scowl on her face.

"I'm Noah, by the way," the nerd boy put out his hand, smiling.

She shook his hand and took the girl's next who said her name was Audrey. "Nice to meet you guys."

"You told Jake you were friends with Emma," Audrey deadpanned. "Emma Duval?"

"Yeah," she said, shrugging. "Friends being a term loosely applied. She's my neighbor and her mom is best friends with my foster mom so they kinda tried to push us together."

"Can I ask why you punched Jake?" Audrey asked without preamble. "I mean, not that it wasn't awesome, but it wasn't really your fight."

"I'm a bit sensitive to the homophobia around here," she shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant about it.

"I'm not a lesbian," Audrey immediately replied, as if justifying herself.

Athena gave her a weird look, "I don't care. Nobody should care. Now, I have to go to my locker before class."

She walked away before they could say much to her in response and was at her locker when she got a chime on her phone. She shuffled it out of her bag and opened the message to see a gif of a cloaked figure standing in front of Nina's bloody body floating in the pool with a white mask. The kind of mask she heard Brandon James wore.

She heard the school erupt into whispers and excited chatter around her and looked around to see everyone looking at their phones with a mixture of interest and disgust. It seemed they got the exact same gif.

When she got to her first class, everyone still had their phones out and were discussing the mass text. Jake had a purpling bruise under his eye forming, but for the most part he was still grinning and excited for the new development.

Mr. Branson walked to the front and leaned back against his desk, "Alright, guys, you know, phones down."

"But the Brandon James gif put us on the map, Mr. B," Jake crowed. "I mean, we've got like seven of the top ten trending hash tags right now."

"Who cares?" Athena muttered to herself.

"You know, maybe you should focus more on your studies and less on Lakewood's web-buzz," Branson quipped quickly, hoping to get back to class.

"Who can resist a murder selfie?" Jake grinned.

"Which is what the killer is counting on," Noah piped in, looking up at Mr. Branson.

The teacher reluctantly allowed another Noah rant, "Alright, Will Graham, what is this killer's design?"

"Well, murder's a lonely game, you know," Noah launched. "I mean, say you're the killer, okay? You sneak into Nina's house, you skulk around and scare her and then you kill her. Boom!" He grinned and then paused, going on with his theatrics by putting on a befuddled face. "But then what? You take a victory lap around the pool? You just stand there, watching the blood spread out in the water, thinking your crazy guy thoughts?"

"Creepy monologue alert," Brooke droned from her seat by the wall.

"So, maybe it's no good if he's the only one who's watching," Riley chimed in from her seat behind him.

He turned around and smiled at her, a little flustered, "Uh, it's the age of Instagram and YouTube and Tumblr. I mean, we need to share the things we do, or it's like it never happened."

A phone went off and Riley pulled hers out, studying the screen. Mr. Branson noticed, "Riley, phones off."

She frowned distractedly, "Sorry, Mr. B. My friend from Saint Mary's texted. A girl that goes there died."

"No way. Who was it?" Brooke gasped.

"How'd it happen?" Jake asked with a sadistic grin on his face.

Riley shrugged, "It doesn't say."

"I'm sorry to hear that, Riley," Mr. Branson said. "Uh, why don't we get back to..."

He was cut off when Audrey got up from her seat, "I have, uh, to go to the bathroom..." she practically stomped out of the room with her phone glued to her ear.

"Actually, let's—let's all take a minute," Mr. Branson allowed, letting the teens talk among themselves.

Emma took off out of the room after Audrey. Athena was almost tempted to go after her too but she stayed in her seat.

The school was buzzing again, this time about a gruesome suicide by none other than Audrey's partner in the girl on girl video someone posted on the internet. Poor Rachel Murray was the victim of a lot of cyber bullying apparently, and suffered from depression.

Opting to walk home from the school instead of take another ride with Ian, Athena took her time, strolling through the park nearby. It was the Washington park not too far from her house. But this park was a place of nightmares and angst for her now. She saw happy families with loving parents and little children, that could be ripped apart at any minute like hers was from her.

She knew she was being particularly morbid about her situation. But she missed home. She missed her parents. She missed her ex-girlfriend. She missed her friends and her job and her studio room her parents had set up for her in their house. She missed it all. And even if she could have some of those things back, it wouldn't be the same. It would never be the same with the Tyler house.

She didn't know how long she was there for, just watching the happy children play with their parents watchful eyes on them. But it was almost dark by the time she got home and a couple feminine voices could be heard in the kitchen. She heard one as Diana, and she thought the other was Maggie, Emma's mother. She quietly kept her belongings from jostling as she hedged to the entrance of the kitchen to listen.

"They found her hanging from her ceiling fan?" Diana gasped, obviously talking about the girl, Rachel, from that religious school. "That poor girl."

"I don't think she did it to herself," Maggie admitted, keeping her voice low even though they thought they were alone. "For her neck to snap, she would have had to fall from a much higher place. The Sheriff let me make the call."

"So, she was murdered?" Diana asked, concern tinging her tone.

"And I know that doesn't excuse Emma's role in that video, but she was so upset when she came to see me."

"Anyone would be," Diana said. "It's good that Emma feels remorse even if Rachel's death wasn't her fault. This will just teach Emma to do the right thing from now on. Even if the Nina Pattersons of the world pressure them to do the funny thing."

Athena had to hold back her gasps throughout the conversation at the realizations that Rachel Murray was murdered and that Emma thought she was responsible for her suicide. She quietly made her way up the stairs and settled into her desk to finished her homework. Emma had invited her to the basketball game tonight but she opted out in favor of relaxing for the night.

It had started getting dark outside, night falling over the town. She was finally done with her homework and getting settled into the window seat with a book when she noticed movement from the Duval house. She looked over to see Emma frantically locking the window downstairs with the phone at her ear and a bat in her hand. She looked scared. Athena attempted to wave and get her attention, but Emma had already walked away from the window.

She stood up and rushed to her desk, reaching to open the bottom drawer and pull out her taser and stun gun. She was running down the stairs when she literally ran into none other than Sam. He grunted and held her shoulders in his hands, "Whoa, where's the fire?"

"Something's wrong with Emma, come on," she didn't bother asking where Ian was or why Sam was there. She just ran for the front door with him on her heels to the Duval house, banging on the door, "Emma, it's me, Athena! What's going on!?"

A frightened looking Emma ripped open the door and was yelling into the phone, "Where the Hell are you? What do you want from me?"

"What's going on?" Sam asked, stalking into the house and looking around for signs of danger.

"About what?" Emma asked, but it was obvious that she was talking to whoever it was on the phone.

Athena looked around with her stun gun charged and out, ready to be used.

"You don't know me."

This whole situation was starting to get on Athena's nerves. She thought Emma was in mortal danger.

"What are you talking about?"

She didn't know what whoever on the other line was saying, but once they were done, Emma dropped the phone in horror and almost starting hyperventilating. Athena walked up to her and put her stun gun on the table by the door, holding Emma's shoulders in her hands, "Breathe – what the hell just happened?"

"I don't know!" Emma cried out in exasperation. "Someone messing with me or something. The alarm went off and the kitchen door was wide open but no one was there and then this guy calls me and he's taunting me. Saying stuff like he's gonna expose all the fake people in my life."

"What fake people?" Sam asked, looking right at Athena.

She tensed under his scrutiny but ignored his looks.

Emma shook her head, "I don't—I don't know what he's talking about. He said that my mom was a liar. Will, maybe, too."

"Will? Your boyfriend?" Athena asked, confused.

"I don't know if he's my boyfriend anymore," Emma confessed. "I found out that he slept with Nina. I mean, that's pretty fake, isn't it? Could that be it?"

"That seems a little thin," Athena admitted. "Why would that warrant all of these theatrics? There has to be more to it." Her mind flashed to the conversation she overheard. First Nina was slaughtered, then Rachel killed and made to look like a suicide. Now someone was crank calling Emma during a home invasion. It was all connected – it had to be.

"Then what could it be?" Emma asked her, her voice shrill and close to breaking.

Athena shrugged, not wanting to tell Emma that she thought a killer was stalking her, "I don't know. But just, keep on guard. Tell me if he calls again. We should talk to the Sheriff but without some sort of proof there's nothing they can do."

Emma slowly nodded, "Okay, okay." She leaned forward and hugged Athena tightly, still shaking. Athena hugged her back only a little awkwardly and calmed her down some more before going back home with Sam.

"What was all of that with the gun?" Sam asked in a hard voice, following her back up the stairs to her bedroom.

"It's a stun gun, Sam, that's all," Athena rolled her eyes. "I also have a taser. They were gifts from my dad."

"Your dad?" he repeated dubiously.

She tensed again, "For lack of a shorter term, yes. He got a good deal on them or something. Wanted me to have them to protect myself. It's no big deal."

"It is when you rush half cocked into some potentially dangerous situation with them," he pointed out.

"I didn't just rush in," she argued. "I just didn't waste any time when I thought Emma was in danger."

"What was your plan exactly?" Sam looked really angry, ready to explode.

But Athena really didn't understand why. "I didn't exactly have one," she admitted. "When shit like this goes down, you're not supposed to stop and devise a strategy, you're supposed to act. And that's what I did. And nothing bad happened. Look," she gestured down her body and did a little twirl, "no harm."

"Dammit, you'd think you would have learned something after what happened," he cursed. "Do you have a death wish or something?"

"This isn't even close to the same thing," she spat, getting angrier. "And I really don't know why you care so much. You're not my father, or my brother. I'm not your responsibility."

"I was there, Athena," he suddenly revealed, in a hard tone, his voice finally going soft.

She stared at him in shock for a moment, her blood going cold. It was like ice pouring over her and all she could mutter in response was, "What?"

"I was there," he repeated, his face turning down into a serious frown, his face covered in guilt and shame. "I saw the whole thing and I could have done something. I tried – but I failed."

Athena blew out a sigh full of air and ran a hand through her hair, "Have you been walking around all this time blaming yourself? Sam, that's ridiculous. You were a kid, what, seven? What the hell were you supposed to do?"

"Something!" he shouted, throwing his hands up in the air. "Anything!"

"It wasn't your fault!" she shouted back. "Nobody blames you. It's all over with now anyway."

"When Ian told me you were coming," he muttered, sitting down on the foot of her bed, "I agonized over how I was going to face you. What I could say to you."

"I really don't want to talk about it," she said, going to sit next to him. "But I forgive you. Not that I ever needed to, but... you can forgive yourself."

"I don't think I can, honestly," he confessed.

She put her hand over his and held it on his knee, leaning her head onto his shoulder. "What a pair we make, huh? A shrink would make a fortune on us combined with all our problems."

He snorted in humor, "Yeah, I guess." It was quiet between them for a moment and the silence grew near awkward when Sam finally started to pull away and stand up. "I should get going. I don't even remember why I was over here in the first place. I just always kinda am." He paused, only growing more awkward, "I'll see you later, Athena."

"Goodnight, Sam," She replied patiently, watching him walk out of the room. She sighed to herself, thinking about how things had turned since she moved in with the Tylers. Deciding there was nothing else to do, and she was starting to get tired, she changed and crept into bed, falling asleep.


	3. Fake People, Fake Death

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> By the way, trailer here;  
> https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G0fXvmnCg7s&t=1s

The next day was Rachel Murray's funeral. Athena thought she would make an appearance to support Audrey – and also tell her that Rachel was murdered – but she decided it wasn't appropriate to show up since she didn't know Rachel. She wanted to give Audrey and the family time to mourn before she busted in. Later on in the day, Emma called her explaining that she told Audrey what was going on and asked Athena to meet the girls at the coffee shop.

Emma hovered at the front counter in her uniform while Audrey and Athena stood at the other side. "At first, I thought it was just some loser playing with his new voice changer app on his phone," Emma explained. "But he won't leave me alone."

"So, you think some deranged stalker killed Rachel to hurt you?" Audrey asked, skeptically.

"I agree that someone is messing with you," Athena added. "And I agree that whoever killed Nina, had to of killed Rachel, but I don't think Rachel's death is connected to you directly."

"What do you mean?" Emma frowned.

"Well, last night you said that the guy wanted to expose the fake people in your life," Athena answered. "Including your mom. That probably included Nina. She was your friend, and from what I've heard of her, she was probably the fakest person in the world. But you didn't know Rachel. She wasn't a fake person."

"No, she wasn't," Audrey agreed quickly.

"So, Rachel was killed for some other reason," Athena reasoned. "I don't know what. She's the outlier so far."

Emma sighed, "This is deranged. He acted like he knew me. He said he wanted to show me the truth. I don't even know what that means."

"What if you wrote him back?" Audrey thought out loud.

"What?" Emma asked.

"If this psycho did kill Rachel, I wanna know the reason why," Audrey scowled. "He DMd you, right?"

"Yeah."

"He opened a line. Let's direct message his ass back," Audrey said.

Emma shakily pulled out her cell phone and replied to the message this guy sent her a while back, texting him that she knew he had killed Rachel. "Now, we wait."

* * *

Mr. Branson seems distracted in class this time, walking around while he lectured, moving things as if he was looking for something. "See, Aristotle asked, 'Why are we here? What is the meaning of life in the face of death?'"

"Bet Tyler's wondering the same thing right about now," Jake smirked, earning laughs from the class.

"Thank you, Jake," Branson rolled his eyes. "See, Aristotle also understood that volatile relationships, well, they can lead to tragedy."

"Looking for something, Mr. B?" Brooke asked in a sultry voice.

"We're all looking for something, Brooke," he replied readily, flustered. "See, desire, that's at the heart of drama. Desire for love. Power. Money. I'm talking about Jason and Madea. About Anthony and Cleopatra. I'm talking about Emma and Kieran."

Emma did a double take, frowning up at the teacher, "Excuse me?"

"I'm splitting you all into pairs," he elaborated. "Uh, you and your partner will choose a dramatic scene to perform in class. Now, let's not just limit ourselves. We can... choose something contemporary, like movies. Audrey and Will."

Audrey and Will looked at each other, Audrey scowling, "If you suggest the pool scene from  _Wild Things_ , I will end you."

"Or, it that's too much for your attention span," Branson went on, "pick a favorite TV show, Riley and Noah."

The two shared a sweet smile, excited about their pairing.

"I'll even allow popular fiction, Jake and Brooke."

Brooke pulled a disgusted face as she looked over at the jock. He smirked at her, "How about Fifty Shades of Grey?"

"In your dreams, mouth-breather," she spat.

He flicked his tongue at her sensually and playfully.

"Alright, everybody," Branson cheered, grabbing his briefcase. "Let's get going to the library, I'm gonna pair the rest of you up there."

The teenagers all collected their stuff and followed Branson to the library where he finished off the pairings. Because of the off ratio of boys to girls, Athena was paired with a girl named Elena. She was pretty girl with tan Hispanic skin and thick black hair. Athena had to admit she found her attractive.

"What kind of scene do you want to do?" Elena asked after they did their introductions. She seemed sweet and a bit girly, dressed in a cute little sundress.

"I don't really know," Athena shrugged. "Most of what I read is a bit out of the norm. So, we could do some easy movie or something."

"Do you act?" Elena asked, ducking her head shyly. "I mean, it makes me really nervous."

"Don't be nervous," Athena tried to casually assure her. "I mean, everyone else is gonna be nervous too and not really paying attention to anyone else's performance. Besides, you're cute. That's all they're gonna see of a class project."

"I'm cute?" Elena asked with piqued curiosity.

Athena snorted, "I'm not hitting on you. Not that I wouldn't. But I'm just trying to ease your nerves."

"Oh," she responded, "So, you're..."

Athena rolled her eyes, "I'm bi. If that's gonna be a problem, I can ask Mr. Branson to reassign us-"

"No!" Elena argued quickly. "It's totally okay. I was just.. curious."

"Okay, well curiosity abated," Athena quipped. "I like guys and I like girls. Let's just choose a good scene. Maybe something from TV. There's a lot of women leads in those these days."

"Sure," Elena nodded, looking at her through half-closed lids.

* * *

Elena and she had picked a scene from Once Upon a Time. It was actually a declaration of love scene between Hook and Emma Swan. Elena had actually been the one to pick that scene, saying that she didn't care if they were both girls, that would just make it all the more fun when the class saw what they were doing. Athena agreed and let Elena decide who would say what lines and just asked her to email her part to her.

Athena was laying down in bed when there was a knock at the door and she called whoever it was to come in. Ian poked his head in the room and walked in, "Hey, what are you up to tonight?"

Athena shrugged, "Nothing. I've finished homework. Why?"

"Sam and I want to go out and have some fun," he answered. "You in?"

"What constitutes as fun with you two?" she asked curiously.

"Movies, pool, tacos," Ian listed off. "That kind of shit. Come on, you need to get out and have fun."

"Fine," Athena laughed. "But I also need to change. So, get out and I'll meet you downstairs."

Ian laughed back and let himself out. Athena was pulling on some jeans when her phone rang, the caller ID saying Emma. "Emma?"

"You'll have no idea what I found out tonight," she answered in a shaky voice.

"That that Kieran kid has the hots for you?" Athena guessed, knowing they got paired up and Emma had him come to their house.

"What?" Emma asked, "No. I found out that my mom is Daisy. The girl that Brandon James was obsessed with. This is obviously what that guy was talking about when he called her a liar."

"Wow," Athena had to admit, she wasn't expecting that. "Did you talk to her about it?"

"Yeah, I just confronted her about it," Emma answered. "She didn't deny it but when I started asking more questions she just shut me down. I don't know if I can ever trust her again."

"She's your mother, and even though it was wrong of her to lie to you about something this big," Athena placated the other girl, "it's also impossible to know when the time is right to talk about something like that. I mean, no one in town ever knew who Daisy really was. She's probably spent her whole life since trying to forget that it ever happened, it was pretty traumatic I'm guessing."

"Why are you defending her?" Emma asked, insulted.

"I'm not trying to defend her, I'm trying to get you to understand her point of view," Athena explained. "She's your mother, she should be honest with you, especially now that she's been caught. But at the same time, if something like this happened to you, would you ever want to dwell on it again? So, just understand that part, and don't stay mad at her forever, okay?"

Emma sighed, "I don't really see myself forgiving her anytime soon."

"That's okay," Athena assured her. "That's normal. I don't blame you. But everyone has their secrets for a reason and depending on what they are, we shouldn't let them mar our important relationships forever. So, just keep open and we'll talk later, okay? I'm going out with Ian and Sam."

"Okay," Emma took a breath, finally calming down. "I'll talk to you later. We still need to get lunch or something, right?"

"Agreed," Athena smiled shortly, before saying her goodbyes and hanging up the phone.

She quickly put on a racer back tank top and leather jacket and skipped downstairs to meet Sam and Ian in the living room, "Okay, bitches, where are we off to first?"

"Tacos!" Ian cheered. "I'm starving."

"You know what? Me too," Sam grinned, lacing an arm around Athena's shoulders as they left the house. They went to the town's local watering hole for food trucks to get some tacos, sitting at a nearby park bench. They chatted and Athena felt at ease for once. She wasn't being crushed under other's expectations. She was allowed to just be herself and have fun.

After they finished eating, they made their way to the movie theater to watch a horror flick. Athena excused herself to go to the bathroom during the previews after they found seats. Ian turned to Sam with a serious expression once she was out of earshot, "Okay, what is going on between you and Athena?"

"What do you mean?" Sam asked with forced nonchalance, shifting in his seat awkwardly.

"You know what I mean," Ian hissed. "She is my sister, man! And she's been through a lot, I don't want you confusing her or getting her into a relationship she isn't ready for."

"You don't think I know that she's been through a lot?" Sam glared back at his best friend. "I think I of all people feel the most responsible for her. I just want to be there for her. Is that okay with you?"

"Of course, but this doesn't seem like friendship from where I'm standing," Ian muttered. "Just be careful. I mean it."

"Don't worry, Ian, I'm not doing anything," Sam said just as Athena walked back over and took her seat in between them.

It was almost two hours later when they finally made their way out of the theater. Athena was laughing and having fun with the boys, making fun of the stupid characters in the movie, when her phone rang. She looked and saw Emma's name flashing on the screen so she answered, "Emma? It's late, what's up?"

"Where are you?" she asked urgently.

Athena abruptly stopped walking, causing Sam and Ian to stop and look back at her. "I'm out with Sam and Ian, why? You don't sound good."

"Just meet me at the police station, okay?" Emma requested in a panicked voice. "Please. And bring the guys with you, don't go anywhere alone. Stay safe."

"What's going on, Emma?" Athena asked, sensing her new friend's tone.

Sam stepped closer to her and gave her a concerned look, mouthing, 'What's going on?'

She shrugged at him, going back to Emma, "Emma?"

"Look, I can't explain right now, I need to get to the police station and make sure Riley is still there," Emma rambled. "She's not answering her phone. Please meet me there, and I'll explain everything."

"Okay, okay, I'll meet you there," Athena answered, not knowing what else to say.

"And stay with the guys!" Emma rushed out and hung up.

Athena put her phone away and looked between Sam and Ian, "Emma sounds really freaked out. She wants me to meet her at the police station. I think she thinks I'm in danger or something."

"That's all the way across town," Ian complained.

Athena gave him a look, "We're going. She told me not to go anywhere alone either. I have to see what's going on."

"Okay, let's go," Sam said, putting his arm around her shoulders and pulling her to Ian's car.

* * *

They had just driven up to the police station, seeing sirens and lights as ambulances and cruisers piled in front of the front steps. Athena didn't even wait for Ian to come to a full and complete stop before she ran out of the car and up the steps to Emma, who was crying hysterically. "Emma!"

Just behind her, Noah and Audrey arrived just as the EMTs were wheeling out a black body bag on a gurney. Noah looked at the body bag, "Is that Riley?"

Athena's eyes widened as she looked between Noah, the body and finally Emma, "What? Riley? Emma, what happened?"

Emma was spluttering out some words like, "He... stabbed her... the roof..."

Noah was getting hysterical as well, jabbing accusations at the people around them, "Oh, my god. How did this happen? How did this happen!? Hey! 'Protect and serve,' my ass!"

"Noah," Audrey chided, grabbing his arm.

"Where was he?" Noah yelled when he caught sight of another cop. "She was  _right_   _here_!"

"Noah!" Emma tried, crying. "Come on. Breathe."

"I don't understand," he wailed. "I don't understand. Who would kill her? I need to know."

"Yeah, so do I," Emma whimpered.

"Okay,  _I_  really need to know what happened," Athena pulled Emma's attention again, putting her hands on her shoulders. "Riley was stabbed? Does this have something to do with why you thought something was going to happen to me?"

Emma nodded, looking around, "Not here."

Sam and Ian had just come up behind the girls as Emma pulled her over to the side of all the commotion. She was still crying and Athena pulled her close, keeping their faces apart so she could look at her. Emma sniffed, "He made me choose."

"Choose? Who made you choose?" Athena asked.

"The guy on the phone," she whimpered. "He DM'd me back. He said I had to choose who would die tonight – Brooke, Riley, or you."

"Athena?" Sam's voice cut in with a hard tone, looking between the girls. "She's being targeted by this guy too."

"I don't know, I don't know," Emma sobbed. "He said I had to choose. I didn't know where Brooke or you were. Riley was supposed to be at the station surrounded by cops. So, I thought she'd be safe. And you were with Sam and Ian so I thought you'd be safe too. So, I told him not to hurt Brooke because she was – I don't know where. He still killed her – he killed Riley. I didn't mean to choose."

"Of course not," Athena pulled her close, letting her cry on her shoulder. "This isn't your fault. It's whoever is doing this."

"Athena, this crazy fucker is after you too now," Sam cut in incredulously. "This is not okay."

Athena pulled away from Emma to give Sam a look of reproach and warning. She looked back at Emma, "Listen, it's going to be okay. We're going to figure this out. Just, let's get you home so you can rest."

Emma nodded a bit numbly and let them lead her to their car.


	4. Those Ugly Truths

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Got carried away with using images

" _Honestly, guys, this is a tough one to talk about. I mean, I've covered some terrible things, but last night, I felt it. The hunt for Tyler O'Neill ended in tragedy and another Lakewood teen lost her life. And the press will be hyping the curse of Brandon James and looking for someone to blame, but I've met these kids. Their loss is impossible to describe. So, I'm not gonna try. My heartfelt condolences go to the friends and family of Riley Marra. I'm sorry for your loss."_

"Can you turn that off?" Elena asked from her perch on Athena's bed.

Athena hit the button on the top of her iPod jack, "Sorry. It's just so typical."

Elena shrugged, "I don't know. I mean, I didn't know Riley but she seemed nice. It's still sad."

"Not that," Athena sighed, flopping onto her back on the bed next to the other girl. "All those words are just that – words. She's not helping or doing anything. She's just talking."

"What else is she supposed to do?" Elena asked, leaning down with her head in her hand, propped up on her elbow. "Tyler is dead. It's over with."

"Yeah, sure," Athena muttered to herself, knowing deep in herself that it definitely wasn't over. But she wasn't going to say anything to the girl. She actually liked her. It had been a couple days since Riley died and she took the time Emma was spending away with Brooke to hang out and work with Elena on their romance scene.

"Are you okay?" Elena asked, slightly leaning over her.

Athena stared up at her, "It just doesn't feel like the conclusion this kind of thing is supposed to have. Usually, isn't the bad guy hauled away to jail yelling that the meddling kids will rue the day they got him caught?"

"This isn't Scooby Doo," Elena smirked briefly before getting serious. "It's real life. Real terrible life lately, but still reality. Tyler is dead, it's over."

"Of course," she responded, feigning that she really believed that. She didn't, not by a long shot. But Elena wasn't mixed up in what she was. And she'd rather it all stay that way. There was no sense dragging more people into the mess of a serial killer spree than the killer already intended.

"Let's do our romance scene," Elena smiled, bubbling at the opportunity. The girls sat up and faced each other, rattling off their lines, facing each other in character – characters in love. Their faces grew closer over the course of their scene, and Elena was staring at her lips.

"You okay?" Athena asked, breaking character.

Elena didn't answer, her eyes lidded, and then she pressed her lips to Athena's, both their eyes closing. Athena froze briefly, not understanding what the hell was going on. But Elena's lips were insistent against hers. She pulled away, blinking her eyes open to Elena's confused face. "What are you doing?"

"Oh my god, I'm so sorry," Elena babbled, blushing deep red. "I thought you were... I mean..."

"I am," Athena cut her off, her lips pursed. "But why are you doing this? I'm not okay with being someone's experiment."

"I like you," Elena whispered, blushing deeper. "It's the first time I've liked a girl, and I'm a little confused. But it's not an experiment."

"Okay then, continue," Athena smiled.

Elena let a little giggle and leaned forward again, kissing her. Athena took over from then, leaning over her until she was laying on top of her on the bed. Elena opened up her legs to cradle her between them and flushed as Athena peppered kisses down her neck.

Just then there was a knock at the door and it creaked open as Sam poke his head in, "Hey, Athen—uh..." he trailed off when he saw her tangled up with Elena's body on the bed. "Oh."

"Sam," Athena groaned, utterly embarrassed as she lifted herself off of Elena and sat in a less compromising position. "Why are you here?"

"Just hanging out," he shrugged, rubbing his hand at the back of his neck. He held out a small brown package, "Ian said this was waiting for you by the door when he got home. I was just bringing it up."

"You can set it on the desk," Athena gestured over to it, keeping a straight face.

"Right," he murmured, setting it down on the desk and then walking out of the room, closing the door behind him.

"That was awkward," Elena groaned, laying back against the pillows. "I should probably head home. My mom's being a little paranoid since Riley was killed at the police station, so she always expects me home before dark."

"Alright," Athena responded a little out of sorts. "We're okay though, right?"

"Yeah, I'm sorry, I'm a little random today," Elena grimaced, hopping off the bed. "I swear I'm not about to ghost on you."

"Good," Athena smiled, letting Elena kiss her one more time before she left. Once the door closed she got up to her desk and picked up the package. It wasn't big, it wasn't even properly labeled. It just had her name scrawled on it in black ink, no postage or anything. Whoever left it at the door, wasn't the postman, but the person themselves.

She gingerly pushed her fingers through the taped lines and pulled them apart, leaving a cardboard box. She pulled the lid off and her brow furrowed in confusion. It was a wooden carved heart, with letters etched deeply into its surface spelling out 'UNKNOWN.' She looked and saw a piece of card paper at the bottom of the box and pulled it out, unfolding it to read a message not unlike the one she got after her first day at school.

' _Who are you, really? Do you even know?'_

She quickly put both the card and the wooden heart in the box, closed it, and shoved it in the drawer of her desk. She shook her head to herself, this was crazy. This person was crazy. And they definitely weren't going to guess at her past just to freak her out. She wouldn't let it. She then felt her phone buzzing and pulled it out of her pocket, seeing a text from an Unknown number. With trepidation, she opened it.

She saw four photos of Riley, Brooke, Emma and Nina in that order, with red X's on Riley and Nina's faces. It was some sort of poll to vote on who would be the next on the chopping block – in other words, vote on who would be next to die. She didn't know if the psycho built this and was spreading it around to terrorize the girls, or if some other asshole put it up and the killer was just passing along the message to bring it to her attention.

She knew one thing for sure. It wasn't over – it definitely wasn't over. And she didn't know if she should feel some sort of self-pride in knowing that before now. Knowing that it couldn't have been Tyler who was killing everyone. Knowing that the killer had more design than the police seemed to. She didn't feel proud to know that because it didn't make any difference. She didn't know the important stuff that could help. She didn't know what the plan was, what the point was, what was next –  _who_  was next.

She decided to go see Emma, if only to distract herself.

Emma was almost out the door when she got there. "Hey, where's the fire?"

"I was just coming to get you," Emma gasped, holding a thick and wide book in her arms – like a yearbook. "I got this in the mail today. We need to go show Noah and Audrey. You guys are the only ones who know everything about this guy."

"Let's go," Athena shrugged, taking the large book Emma was handling. It turned out to actually be a yearbook, it looked like one from their High School, but when she looked at the spine the year was 1994. "Who gave you an old yearbook? I think this is the year Diana and Till graduated."

"My mom and dad graduated that year too," Emma explained as they drove to Noah's work. She parked a bit haphazardly before rushing in, startling Noah and Audrey at the clear glass desk.

"Emma," Noah greeted dubiously, looking worse for wear. "Uh, welcome to my nightmare. What's up?"

Emma took the book from Athena and pressed it on the counter, "I got this in the mail. I think the killer is sending me some weird message."

"A yearbook?" Noah asked, not getting the big deal. "That's not so weird." Emma started flipping the pages open, revealing the crudely cut out photos. Noah gaped, "Oh, Holy Manson Family album!" Audrey smacked his chest. "Hey!" He looked at Emma sheepishly, "Sorry. Just... these were Brandon's victims."

"He cut out their faces?" Athena asked.

"And then he scratched out my dad's. The only survivor," Emma added. She paused, and gave a look to Athena. "He also, uh, wrote on Diana's."

"What?" Athena asked, grabbing the book and flipping to Diana's photo. It red ink the words 'LIAR' and 'FAKE' were written. "Liar? Fake? What does that mean?"

"Well this person is using my mom to get to me because she's been lying to me about her involvement with the Brandon James fiasco," Emma surmised. "And Diana has been my mom's best friend since middle school. Maybe Diana knew and helped my mom hide it. I don't know."

Athena shifted on her feet, "You told me your mom was Daisy. Brandon was obsessed with her. Did he ever talk to her? Maybe... give her gifts? To prove his feelings for her or something."

"Yeah, he used to carve wooden trinkets for her," Emma replied, confused. "Why?"

Athena looked to the ground, "Nothing. Nothing."

"That look doesn't look like nothing," Audrey spoke, deadpan. "What's going on with you?"

Athena looked up, seeing all three of them looking at her, and sighed, "Look, I've gotten things in my room. Just a couple..."

"What were they?" Noah asked eagerly, earning another jab from Audrey.

"Well, after my first day here, there was a note in my room asking if my name was Jules or Athena and that my secret would come out," she explained. "Then today I got a package – a wooden heart with the word 'UNKOWN' carved into it."

"The truth lies where the mask was made," Noah read the wording around Emma's dad's photo, then looked at Athena. "Mr. Branson called you Jules on the roll sheet that first day. What secret is the killer talking about?"

Athena wrung her hands together, "It's..."

"You can trust us," Emma swore to her. "I mean, if it's big enough that you're being targeted for it. We need to help each other."

She sighed, knowing that for safety sake, she should tell them the truth about her. It was just something she never wanted to share with anyone in Lakewood. "I wasn't born Athena Tyler," she revealed to them. "Until about a month ago, I thought my name was Athena Contos. I thought my parents were Alonzo and Gretchen Contos."

"You thought?" Audrey questioned.

Athena nodded, "I was applying for jobs, for some extra money. I was called in for an interview at a yogurt shop and when I showed up, the police were there, wanting to talk to me. They didn't even tell me what it was about, just corralled me into their car and took me down to the Portland PD station. They let me sit in an interview room for an hour and half before a lady cop comes in to tell me that my parents aren't my parents."

"They weren't your parents?" Emma asked. "Who were they then?"

"My kidnappers," Athena breathed.

Emma gasped and she, Audrey and Noah all looked at each other before looking back at her. Noah gaped, "Kidnappers? Oh, my god."

Athena nodded, "Yeah. Apparently they couldn't have children of their own, and adoptions had fallen through last minute three times in a row. They lost hope. And they lost it. So, they came to a random town – Lakewood – and picked up a baby at the park. I was three years old. There was no trace of me after that. Until I started applying for jobs with a dummy social security number. Then the police found me, arrested my dad – I mean, Alonzo – and returned me to my real family. Biologically, Diana and Till are my parents, Ian and Lana are my siblings."

"Wow," Emma murmured. "Somehow, the killer knows. Or they are trying to figure it out. He's obsessed with revealing secrets in our past."

"But why me?" Athena asked. "I have nothing to do with Brandon James. He wasn't obsessed with my mom, Diana hasn't had the chance to lie to me about it because I haven't lived with her all my life. Plus, that just proves it's not Tyler. I didn't even know him. He was already gone when I got here. He never heard Mr. Branson call me Jules."

"It could be anyone who knows that the Tyler family had a third kid though," Audrey surmised. "It doesn't have to be someone who heard Branson call you Jules."

"I still never thought it was Tyler," Athena shrugged. "He just doesn't make sense to me. And even though it is completely illogical to go around murdering people, there's still usually a reason, some kind of twisted logic behind it that makes sense to the killer."

"The truth lies where the mask was made," Noah repeated. "You know, the mask Brandon James wore was actually a surgical mask. Some say it was all that held his face together..."

"Noah," Audrey warned, cutting off his monologue.

"Okay, okay," he sighed. "Uh, just... it was to protect his sutures from infection, post-op."

"So, who made it?" Emma asked.

He shrugged, "I don't know. Brandon's surgeries were done at Lakewood General, out on the turnpike, but it closed down, like, six or seven years ago." He paused, looking at Emma with wide excited eyes, "Please tell me we're going there!"

"No," Emma quickly shut him down. "We're not going anywhere."

"But it's a great lead!" he objected.

"Look, I know that you want to do something for Riley," Emma sighed. "I do too. But, uh.. this could be a trap."

Noah shrunk, "Uh, yeah, fine. Okay. Why don't you take it to the Sheriff? Go be a law-abiding – whatever."

Emma bid farewells and Athena and Audrey followed her outside. Athena tugged on her arm, "You're not going to that hospital alone."

"I have to go," Emma insisted. She looked at Audrey, "I keep thinking about what you said this morning. About what a relief it would be if it actually was Tyler who was behind all of this. And, I mean, if he sent me that yearbook, and he's dead, then this isn't a trap. He's not there to ambush me. And you'd have your answer." She shifted on her feet. "But also, if it wasn't him..."

"We're going with you," Athena deadpanned, leaving no room for argument.

"Prepared," Audrey added.

"Okay," Emma nodded. "Should we take Noah?"

"Oh, God, no," Audrey answered instantly. "He'd be like a four-year-old at Disneyland. We'd have to put a leash on him."

"Fair point," Emma agreed.

"Let's just go before it gets too dark tonight," Athena urged, already walking to the car. Seeing that Emma was either to driven or too shaken to drive, she took the wheel and drove them with Emma's directions. "Look, we have to be smart about this, okay? I have my taser gun with me, so stick close to me in case some fucker with a mask jumps out at us, okay?"

"I can handle myself," Emma argued, but Athena heard the tremor in her voice.

"I'm sure you think that," she allowed. "But I think out of the three of us, I'm the only one with actual combat training."

"You have training?" Audrey asked from the back seat.

She shrugged as she drove to park in front of this hospital place, "My dad – I mean, Alonzo, – he, uh, wanted me to be prepared for anything. He was protective like that."

They helped themselves out of the car and Emma looked up at the building, "So, what do you think?"

"Uh, second thoughts are setting in," Audrey admitted.

Emma steeled her face, "Look, this guy killed Riley at the police station and Nina at her house, and he's been in Athena's room and I know for a fact that he was outside my house the other night," Emma explained. "If he wanted to kill me, he's had plenty of chances."

"That's sketchy logic," Audrey deadpanned. She shifted and sighed, "But it almost makes sense."

"He's playing a game," Athena pitched in. "It would be a pretty boring game if he killed off his key player before he was done. And he wants to expose everything fake in her life to her, she has to be alive for that."

"What about us?" Audrey asked, looking over at the new girl.

"He's targeting Athena now too," Emma pointed out. "He brought her into the game."

Athena pulled out her taser gun, "And I'll protect you too. Let's go."

The girls ventured into the dark building, squinting their eyes to see and look around. It was vast inside and cluttered with shelves and other things. Audrey looked around, "This place is huge. Maybe we should split up."

Emma gave her a side glare, "That is not even remotely funny."

"Just messing with you," Audrey smiled to herself.

Athena took the front of the group, "This way." The girls stopped when they noticed a crude trail of blood.

"This can't be good," Emma breathed.

"Let's keep going," Athena goaded, following next to the trail until they reached some double doors.

Audrey let her flashlight crawl up the doors until they saw a red painting of a Brandon James mask. Athena squared her shoulders and pushed through the doors. She walked until they got to a large operating theater. There was a plethora of xrays taped the the wall and an empty gurney in the center of the room. She paused at the other side of the room by a curtain whereas Emma was looking at the xrays and Audrey at the bloody sheets on the gurney. A faint buzzing sound began bugging her, she reached up to swat around her face but saw nothing. "Guys do you hear flies?"

The girls looked at her, a little lost, both shaking their heads.

Athena sighed, walking towards the curtain, where the noise got stronger. So, she pulled the curtain away and gasped at the sight of another gurney with a dead pig with a slit in his belly, practically gutted. "Oh my god!"

"Is that a pig?" Audrey groaned behind her. "Oh, God, I'm never eating bacon again."

The girls all covered their noses as Athena took a closer look, "It's missing it's heart, I think."

"My mom got a heart in a box," Emma revealed. "This is where it's from."

"Lovely," Audrey deadpanned.

"The head is missing too," Athena told them. "Anyone care about that part?"

"All of these xrays are of Brandon James," Emma mumbled. "There are pictures and all of his previous masks. This is where they tried to fix him. Each mask was custom made for Brandon's face after each one of the surgeries."

"There's more than one mask?" Audrey asked, concerned and a little frightened.

"If it was easy for us to find this place, it'd be easy enough for the killer to find it and take one of the other masks," Athena suggested. "I mean, the one he wore that night is with the police. But if the killer found all of this then he could have gotten his hands on another one and it would look nearly identical."

"That's a good point," Noah's voice sounded behind them.

All the girls screamed out loud and whipped around to see the boy jump from the fright of their shrieks, covering his ears. "Geez, I think you broke my ear drums."

"Forget about your ear drum!" Athena chided. "You nearly gave us all a heart attack. What the Hell are you doing here?"

"Does that really require an explanation?" he asked her. "You know I wanna make this guy pay just as much as you do."

"Hey," Audrey cut in, "don't blame them. Blame me."

"Guys, we have bigger problems," Emma cut them off.

Noah was already looking around like a kid in a museum, "Holy Christmas. Oh, I knew it. It's a genuine killer's lair."

"That's a thing?" Emma asked.

"Oh, please don't get him started," Audrey begged.

"A lair is an extension of the killer's psychosis," Noah fan-girled. "Like Hannibal Lecter's kitchen. I mean, every fictional killer has one."

"The difference is that this isn't fictional," Athena cut in. "This is real scary shit and we need to find out why it's all here. I mean, it's all just laying around for us to find? That's too easy. No, we were meant to find this place for a reason."

"Good point," Noah admitted. "It all looks staged. You see lairs on TV, not in real life. Take Pretty Little Liars. They're always chock-full of bloody clues and creepy unrealistic icons. I mean, seriously, how would A get her hands on four Victorian dolls that look just like the main characters? How do you shop for that?"

"More importantly," Athena smirked at him, "how do you know so much about Pretty Little Liars?"

Noah gaped at her a little like a fish, "That's besides the point."

"Hey, guys," Audrey called their attention to another table where little trinkets were placed. She held up her camera, pointing it towards a little figurine, "This is Rachel's."

Emma walked over and looked at a necklace, "Nina's necklace."

"This is Riley's key chain," Noah pointed to a four leaf clover. "The bastard took souvenirs."

"This is mine," Athena interrupted, reaching out to a wishbone necklace. "I didn't even notice this was missing. This sicko has been in my room."

"You definitely need an alarm system or something," Audrey told her.

"The missing yearbook pictures are here too," Noah said, flashing his phone's flashlight up into the ceiling. Each yearbook photo hung from strings, along with a smattering of photos of Emma too. He looked through them until he noticed something, "Wait – I don't remember this woman being one of the victims, it's an extra photo."

"What photo?" Athena asked. He reached up to pull it from the string, easily grasping it. He handed it to her and she gasped, her hand jumping to her mouth.

"What? What is it?" Noah asked eagerly.

"My mom..." Athena whispered in horror.

"Diana?" Emma asked, looking over her shoulder.

Athena stared at the photo, the young girl with dark hair, dark eyes and high cheek bones, smiling blissfully. "No... the mom who raised me. Gretchen."

"She was from Lakeview?" Audrey asked.

"She told me that she was born in Eureka," Athena was still staring at the photo in shock. "She always told me that she met my dad when she went to college in Portland. This must be the reason they chose Lakeview to go kid shopping." She took a deep breath and put the photo down on the table with the other objects, "We should go. All of this should be in the police's hands, right?"

"Because they did such a good job before," Noah snorted.

Athena faced him, "I know they failed. But it's just stupid to not involve them when we found the bad guy's lair full of evidence. If they find us in here, tampering with it, it'll all be inadmissible in court and this sicko could go free even if he gets unmasked."

"Okay, let's go," Emma agreed, leading them out of the room. She came to a grinding halt by another table where there was a purple laptop, "Wait—this is Nina's laptop."

"What?" Audrey intoned, coming to her side.

"The police have been looking for this," Emma explained, opening it up to Nina's desktop. There were a multitude of yellow folders with names attached to them of teens in Lakeview that Nina knew.

"Whoa," Audrey's eyes widened. "Folders for all her friends?"

"Maybe photos?" Emma suggested.

Noah pointed to one in the top corner, "Was she friends with the Mayor?"

"There's one for the Principal and the Sheriff too," Athena pointed out.

"Nina, what the hell were you doing?" Emma spoke to no one in particular before clicking on a file. A screen popped up for a pass-code of some sort.

"They're encrypted," Noah realized. "I could get 'em open, but I'd need some time."

"We can't take the laptop," Athena instantly shot down. "But would we be able to take the files, even if we can't open them right now?"

"Yeah," Noah shrugged.

"Does your camera have a SD card?" Emma asked Audrey.

Audrey nodded and pulled the blue card out of her camera and handed it into Emma's gloved hands. Just then they heard a loud sound like a slamming door and some shuffling feet.

"Someone's coming," Noah urged as Emma slipped the SD card into the computer.

"Okay, it's copying," Emma said back.

"Come on, we gotta go now," Athena hissed. "How much longer?"

"Ten seconds," Emma whispered.

"We don't have ten seconds," Audrey insisted.

"I know, I know, I know," Emma bounced on her feet, watching the computer screen with rapt attention.

"Uh, perimeter alert," Noah said, catching sight of flashlights. "We gotta go now."

"Five seconds," Emma whispered.

They heard the sound of another door opening and Noah said again, "Emma, we gotta go!"

"Okay, we're done," Emma yanked the SD card out of the laptop and shut it, following the others as they tired to run off. They came to a tall shelf where a lone Brandon James mask sat propped up at the top. "What's that?" Emma asked.

"It's Brandon's mask,  _the_  one," Noah told her.

"Forget it, we gotta go," Athena insisted.

"There might be DNA on it," Emma pointed out, her voice pitching. She reached up to grab the mask and when she took it down, there was a human head behind it that came tumbling down to the floor. All the teens screamed at the startling sight, jumping away. Emma dropped the mask and gasped, "Oh, my God. That's Tyler's head!"

"We knew he didn't kill anyone," Athena agreed, grabbing her arm, "but we gotta go now!"

"Back exit!" Emma called as they ran for it. They all tumbled towards the door and pushed it open to see the Sheriff and two cops there with guns and flashlights. All the teens screamed again, facing the Sheriff who wore a deadpan expression, bordering on angry, "You three, with me. Now."

* * *

"What were you thinking?" Maggie asked, her voice scolding as she stared at the four teens on the couch in the Sheriff's office.

"Yeah, what were you thinking?" the Sheriff practically shouted. "Every piece of evidence in that hospital is potentially inadmissible because of you!"

"It didn't look like you were using any of it!" Athena shouted back, glaring at both adults. "There was Nina's laptop, the guy's trophies from his victims, Tyler's fucking head!"

"We swept that place a week ago, looking for Tyler," he retorted. "There was nothing."

"Then why were you there tonight?" Athena asked, standing up defensively. "How'd you know we were there?"

"Anonymous tip," he crossed his arms. "Someone saw you guys breaking in."

The teens shared a look, having an idea as to the identity of the anonymous tipster.

"So, why were you there?" the Sheriff asked.

Emma sighed, "A package came to the house." She looked at her mother, somewhat accusingly, "The 1994 Lancers yearbook. He cut out people's faces, he wrote things."

"Oh, my God, Emma," Maggie whispered, kneeling down in front of her daughter.

"Why didn't you come straight here?" The Sheriff scolded, exasperated.

Emma glared at him, "Because the last time I came here, it didn't really end that well."

"Hey," Maggie chided, "that's not fair."

"No, the fact that we're the ones dying for your lies is not fair," Athena snapped. "None of this shit is our fault, Miss Daisy. I just moved here and already four people have died and this freak has shown no sign of stopping. He's targeting us, because of you."

"Where is she?" Athena heard Diana's voice just outside the room. She then burst through the door, "Where is my daughter? Jules, are you okay?"

Athena's steam had still been building and her glare only deepened when Diana and Till walked through the door. "My name is Athena! God—dammit!"

"Hey," Ian ran into the room and took Athena into his arms, "are you alright?"

"No," she huffed, accepting his hug before pulling away. "We're being grilled for not coming to the police when it's the police who practically forced us into it when they allowed Riley to wander off and get herself killed."

Emma stood up and stood with Athena, "I said I didn't think it was Tyler. No one believe me."

"But you believe us now, right?" Audrey asked.

"Well, considering his head is in that hospital and his body is in the car, yeah," the Sheriff answered.

"Glad we cleared that up," Noah scoffed, going to stand up.

The Sheriff stopped him, "Sit down. Don't move. I'm gonna need your camera, Audrey." The short haired girl handed over her camera. The Sheriff took it and sighed, "Now all of you, get out of here. Go home. Do me a favor. Any further contact, you call me immediately."

"Come on, darling," Diana tried to put an arm around Athena's shoulders.

But the girl somewhat violently shook her off, "Don't touch me."

"Hey!" Till scolded her, following the girl as she practically ran out of the Sheriff's station, "Don't treat your mother like that."

"News flash," Athena whirled around to glare at them, "neither of you are my parents. And I always thought that that wasn't your fault so I  _tried_  – I really tried here. But I am not Jules, I will never be Jules." She started walking down the street, towards their house.

"Ju—Athena," Diana ran after her.

But Athena ignored her and turned to Ian, "Please tell me you drove a separate car here."

"Yeah, yeah, come on," he put an arm around her shoulder and lead him to his car. They jumped in, ignoring Diana yelling after them.

They drove in silence for a little while until Ian finally spoke, "Wanna tell me what's going on?"

"I'm sure Diana will tell you her version, Till too," Athena muttered. "I realize that I haven't been the poster daughter you all were expecting, but-"

"Stop that," Ian interrupted. "Whatever's going on, I'm sure there's an explanation. And no one can blame you for being... overwhelmed. We're all overwhelmed."

"Really?" Athena asked sarcastically. "All of you? Ian, out of the whole family, I've spent more time with you and Sam than anyone. With Lana, I understand, she's at that age where she's too cool for everything and she never knew me, let alone missed me. But the only times I see Till are at dinner and Diana's only around when others are too. It's like I have some kind of disease. They can't even look at me half the time, like they're forcing themselves to act like I was never gone."

"Mom and dad are having just as difficult a time with all of this," Ian tried to explain to her. "You have to give them time."

"That's easy for you to say, you didn't have your whole life ripped out from under you only to find out that the new one is a lie too," Athena spat as she got out of the car once he parked in front of their house.

Till and Diana pulled into the driveway and raced up behind her as she walked into the house. "Athena, you can not speak to me like that and then just walk away."

Athena scoffed, walking into the house, "Oh, cry me a river. I'm sorry I embarrassed you tonight, let's just leave it at that."

"Athena," Till cut it when she went for the stairs, "you can't treat us like this, as if you're the only one going through a transition. You're not. We're dealing with this too."

Athena guffawed, "Oh, please, spare me. Till, you're never home. And you, Diana, make plans for me. Try to set up play dates with Emma because we were supposed to grow up together. Put me in your old school. You shoved me into the life Jules was supposed to live here like I can take her place but I can't. I'm Athena. I grew up in Portland in a loft apartment with two parents and no siblings. I had a girlfriend with green hair and I got B's in school. I'm not your poster child."

"Is that what you're walking around with?" Diana asked, moisture in her eyes as she faced the younger girl. "Talk to us, Athena. Tell us what's bother you. Be honest – for once."

" _Honest?_ " Athena laughed sarcastically. "You want to measure up honesty here, Diana? Fine, why did you never tell  _anyone_  that you knew my mother?" She cut herself off, letting out another scoffing laugh, "Sorry – my  _kidnapper_."

Diana gaped as all eyes turned to her. Ian asked with narrowed eyes, "What?"

"Yeah, tell 'em Diana," Athena spat. "You knew Gretchen. She lived here, in Lakeview. She went to your school, she was in your class. All this time, you knew who she was. At least since she was named as my kidnapper when I was found. So, how come you held back?"

"I – I," Diana stuttered.

"It's true?" Till asked, stepping away from Diana to look at her. "You knew Gretchen Contos?"

"She was Gretchen Linda back then," Athena corrected, "but yeah, you knew her, Diana. Were you friends with her? Did you ever suspect that she was the one who had me? All these years?"

"I didn't know she took you," Diana spoke as if she was gasping for air, as if there wasn't enough around her. "God, if I did, I would've-"

"You would've what?" Athena cut her off. "Would have spoken up? Is this why you can't even acknowledge what happened? The reason you just try to ignore the glaring elephant in the room when you and I are around each other? Pretend it's not there? Because you feel guilty."

Diana didn't say anything, looking down at the ground.

"That's just great," Athena muttered. "Well, I'm done with it. I'm done trying to tip toe in this house because I feel like a stranger. I'm done trying to tip toe around you because you want me to be someone I'm not. You don't know anything about me – my favorite color, where I want to go to college, what I like to do. Because you don't care to ask. Because you don't want me to stray from who you envisioned Jules would be if she was still here. Well, tough shit, Diana. I'm Athena, not Jules. And nothing you do is going to change that." With that rant finally dragged from her throat and lungs, she twisted on her heel and raced up the stairs, slamming her bedroom door.

* * *

"Hey, Piper, do you have a second?" Emma asked as she walked into work the next morning, seeing the podcaster on the couch.

The brunette nodded, taking a sip of her coffee, "Emma. Perfect timing. I was just wrapping things up."

Emma paused, sitting down, "Wait, you're done? You're leaving?"

She shut her laptop and set it aside, "I'm gonna grab some man-on-the-street reaction bits, uh, request interviews from police, get shut down, rinse, repeat. But, uh, yeah, the case is pretty much done. Just came by to say goodbye and, uh, grab a latte for the road."

"Maybe you shouldn't," Emma hinted.

"Does this have anything to do with what happened at the hospital yesterday?" Piper asked gently. "The sheriff isn't sharing anything."

"You know, I can't talk about specifics," Emma told her.

Piper nodded, "I get it. You don't have to say anything, but barista to podcaster, if you were me, would you stay or would you go?"

Emma looked around, for who – she didn't know – before looking back at Piper and saying, "I would stay."


	5. Shame Doesn't Speak

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Second trailer here;  
> https://vimeo.com/220215560

"So, you found Tyler's head," Elena asked, her fingers tangled with Athena's as they walked through the neighborhood.

Athena nodded, "Yeah, so unfortunately none of this is over."

"No offense, but I didn't realize you were so close to Emma and Audrey," Elena bumped their shoulders together. "I mean, Emma's the target and you're helping even though it probably puts you at risk."

"Right," Athena breathed, stopping and taking both of Elena's hands in hers so that she had her attention. "About that – he's not only targeting Emma. He's also targeting me."

Elena gasped, "Wait, what? How do you know?"

"I didn't for sure until yesterday," Athena admitted. "I got a weird note the day Nina died. But yesterday, when Sam walked into my room with that package, remember? It was this weird trinket with another note. Emma got something too so that's how we ended up at that hospital. Elena, he stole one of my necklaces – I found it there."

"So, he's been in your house?" Elena practically shook, seeming scared. "Have you told your parents?"

Athena scoffed bitterly, "Please."

"I know they're just your foster parents but they should still know that a serial killer has been breaking into their house," Elena reasoned.

"Like they'd believe me," Athena commented. "That's not the point of me telling you all of this."

"Then what is it?" Elena asked.

"You shouldn't be with me," Athena told her, a slight tremor in her voice. "It's dangerous with this guy after me. He—he could use you, or hurt you just to hurt me. I don't know how his mind works, none of us know exactly what he's capable of."

"What are you saying?" Elena frowned. "You don't want to see me anymore?"

"It's not about what I want," Athena stressed. "It's about your safety. I don't know what he's going to do. I can't protect Emma because he's after her too. I can't protect the Tylers because I live with them. But I can spare you."

Elena didn't say anything, just staring at her.

Athena sighed, "Do you understand?"

Elena shook her head in a fluttering movement, "No, I mean – yes, I understand what you're saying. I just don't agree with you. We can't let this freak control our lives."

"Elena, you could die," she insisted.

"And tomorrow I could get hit by a bus," Elena yelled, "or mugged, or – or fall in the shower and hit my head. Anything could happen anytime and we can't let fear rule us. I'm not going to let it and neither should you, okay?"

Before Athena could muster out an answer or argument Elena took her in her arms and pressed their lips together. Whatever Athena could have said was swallowed up in her mouth as Elena kissed her. Elena wrapped her arms around her waist so Athena wrapped hers around the other girl's neck and chin. Athena still felt fear in her gut that something could happen to Elena just because of her. But she ignored it, feeling the butterflies in her stomach from the other girl's touch. She pulled her closer, surrendering to the urge and kissed her, right there in the middle of the neighborhood.

When they pulled away they were both breathless and smiling. Elena kept her arms secured around Athena waste and asked, "So, are we going to forget all of this nonsense about not seeing each other anymore?"

Athena rolled her eyes, "I am never going to feel okay putting you in danger. But it's not like I can tell you I don't like you anymore so you're gonna show up anyway. Just be careful."

Elena went to reply when her phone chimed. She grimaced, pulling it out, "It's probably my mom."

"Have you told her about all of this?" Athena asked, using her pointer finger to indicate their entwined bodies.

"I wanted it to be official first," Elena excused, opening up the message incoming on her phone. Her jaw fell slack, shock taking over her face, "Oh my god."

"What? What is it?" Athena asked, walking around to look on the phone screen.

"It's Emma and Will," Elena put a and over her mouth in shock.

Athena gasped when she saw a shirtless Will helping Emma out of her shirt on her bed. "Oh my god, we should not be watching this."

"Right," Elena muttered, exiting out of the video. "Who sent this?"

"I have an idea," Athena muttered.

* * *

Athena sighed for what felt like the tenth time the next morning. She had called and talked to Emma after seeing that video and tried to comfort her but there was little she could say. Athena never had her secret sex tape sent to everyone in town's phone. So, the next morning, she slapped on a dress and grabbed her stuff to meet Emma out front and go to school together so that someone was with her when she had to face all the horrific teenagers.

"Honey, I made sausage and eggs," Diana called when she heard Athena walk downstairs.

"I'm a vegetarian," she deadpanned, going into the fridge to grab a water bottle, walking out without a backwards look to Diana's downtrodden face.

She walked out of the house and made her way to Emma's, knocking on the door. An already flustered girl opened it, "Hi," and started the walk to her car.

"Hey," Athena answered as she climbed into the passenger's seat. "You ready for this? It's gonna be brutal."

"I know," Emma sighed, "but I don't really have a choice. I just need to get it over with, right?"

"Keep your head up, kid," Athena smirked. "Looking down shows them that you're ashamed. Show them that you're not."

"It's easier said than done," Emma muttered as they stopped at a red light.

"Back home, in sophomore year of High School, I was caught making out with the Principal's daughter outside the gym," Athena revealed. "I didn't know what it meant back then, I didn't know what I was. My parents were fine with it, her parents – not so much. The Principal had a vendetta against me, gave me detention for minor infractions that anyone else would have walked away from without much more than a warning. And he kept his daughter locked up in the house, switched her out of all the classes she had with me. He didn't want me to fully turn her gay."

"I didn't realize you were..." Emma trailed off as they pulled up to the school's parking lot.

"I'm bisexual," she filled in for her. "I've had two girlfriends and one boyfriend. I'm actually dating my Language Arts partner, Elena. It's still new so we haven't broadcasted it yet."

"I don't think the Principal will punish you for it here," Emma said as she finally pulled into a parking spot.

Athena shrugged, "It wasn't bad for too long. My mom – I mean, Gretchen – could be a pill for people who messed with her little girl. She made friends with the School Board and got him fired. He ended up packing up his family and moving to Nevada."

"Wow, she really stood up for you," Emma commented, getting out of the car.

Athena followed her, "Well, they went to great lengths to get me – figures she'd do anything to protect me. At least in her mind."

"I'm sure they both loved you," Emma assured her before they walked into the school. "Just love makes people do insane things."

"Trust me, I know that by now," Athena stopped off at her locker to grab some things.

Emma could hear others around talking and whispering about her, casting looks at her as they laughed. She shrunk, about to look down at her feet, but stopped, remembering Athena's words. Don't look down. Don't show them that you're ashamed of anything. So, she tilted her head back up.

"Emma!" Audrey came up to them. "Hey. Been there. Totally sucks."

Emma nodded, "Yeah. I just feel so exposed."

"There is a little bit of cosmic justice at play here," Audrey smirked. "That which doesn't destroy us makes us stronger."

"See?" Athena laughed, coming up to hug Emma's shoulders. "It'll be fine."

"Emma!" Will's voice was heard behind them. They turned to see him jogging up to them, looking eager and concerned towards Emma.

"We'll catch up with you in class," Athena offered, walking off with Audrey.

She and Audrey walked into their Language Arts class and took their seats, others slowly trickling in behind them as the bell rang. Emma and Brooke took their regular seats, the empty one behind Emma staying empty until a redheaded girl plopped in it. Brooke gave her a deadly glare, "Are you kidding me?"

The girl snarled, her lip quirking up like an ugly Elvis' impression, "You got a problem?"

"Yeah, I do," Brooke snapped. "That's Riley's seat. Forever."

The girl rolled her eyes but wisely collected her things and found a new seat.

While the teacher was walking in, Noah twisted in his seat to talk to Emma, "Hey, Emma, again, I am just so exponentially sorry about that video. I had no idea that it was gonna just mutate and spread like this crazy zombie sex virus. And that came out so horribly..."

"It's okay, Noah," Emma whispered. "I mean, it's not okay, but... you couldn't have known what was going to happen."

Mr. Branson cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "Okay, everybody. We are still reeling from Riley's death, but we do have learning to do. Noah, I know you two were scene partners."

"Uh, yeah," Noah coughed, "I, I think I'm just gonna sit this one out. If that's okay."

"I understand," the teacher answered readily. "That's fine. But we will resume our scene work next week. Let's get back to Hawthorne. The Scarlet Letter. It's a classic tale of hypocrisy, misogyny, and female oppression."

Jake raised his hand, a funny look on his face, "Mr. Branson, seriously, with all the cyber-bullying and GIFs and mayhem going down... Who cares?"

A cell phone chimed but was ignored as Mr. Branson responded, "Actually, Jake, it's very relevant. See, the birth of Hester Prynne's illegitimate child led to her being essentially outed and cuber-bullied, Puritan style."

"It just takes nine months instead of nine seconds," Kieran elaborated from his seat in the back.

"Exactly."

A boy leaned over Will's shoulder with his phone out displaying the Emma-Will video, grinning, "Or, uh, three minutes, right?"

Will snarled, jumping out of his seat, "Shut the hell up!"

Emma stood up, "Will, stop! It's enough."

"Will, back off. Sit down," Mr. Branson warned. "Emma, are you okay?"

"No," she answered, "no, I'm not okay." She took a deep breath and stopped, "Um... I know that our thoughts are all with the friends that we've lost. And so I just wanted to remind everyone that there's a candlelight vigil downtown tonight at seven. And I hope that all of you will make it."

* * *

Once class let out, Athena felt herself smile as she walked up behind Elena and intertwined their fingers, "Are you coming out tonight?"

"I think so," Elena murmured, gently pulling her hand loose and stuffing it in her pocket.

Athena's smile fell, "What was that?"

"What?" Elena feigned innocence as they stopped at her locker.

"The whole pulling your hand away thing," Athena filled in, leaning against the close locker next to her.

"I'm just not that into PDA," Elena answered, pulling a book out of her locker.

"You didn't mind it yesterday," Athena commented, folding her arms in front of her.

Elena shrugged, "Yeah, well, there wasn't anyone around yesterday."

She stiffened, a sickening feeling building in her stomach at the implication in her words. She felt the sting of rejection and responded the only way she could to protect herself – lash out. "And there it is," Athena smiled sarcastically, accusing, "you don't want people to know we're seeing each other."

Elena gaped, "No, that's not it. We're just new. I don't want talk and drama to get in the way."

Athena laughed sardonically, "That's bullshit, Elena, and you know it. Look, I told you that I wasn't going to be anyone's experiment and I'm definitely not going to be anyone's dirty little secret. So, figure it all out for yourself and leave me out of it."

She turned to leave but Elena grabbed her arm, "Wait, Athena, no, I'm not ashamed of you. You're not my experiment, you know that."

Athena turned back to her, willing to hear her out, but she caught Elena looking around the hallway at others to see if they were looking at them. She scoffed, "Yeah, like I can believe you. See you around, Elena."

This time, she ignored Elena's calls after her and kept walking to her next class.

* * *

At lunch, she went to sit outside. She was walking out of the building when she heard Emma behind her, "Hey, Athena. I was just wondering if you were coming out tonight."

Athena felt a little distracted, pushing a hand through her hair, and nodded her head, "Yeah, I'll be there."

"Hey, are you okay?" Emma asked, keeping her hand on her arm.

She shrugged, shaking her head, "Um, no, turns out I'm not seeing Elena anymore. She doesn't want people to know she likes girls, and I'm not okay keeping it all under wraps. That's just not me."

"I'm sorry," Emma whispered, hugging her to comfort her. "She may be confused or whatever but if she doesn't know what an amazing girl you are, then she doesn't deserve you."

"Thanks," Athena muttered as they pulled away. "But it'll be okay. It was stupid to even start a relationship now. With everything going on, it's just too much, you know?"

"Yeah," Emma breathed, nodding along. "But the cops will take care of this now and we just need to keep our heads low."

"If he lets us," Athena scowled.

* * *

It was already dark by seven when Athena arrived at the vigil. It hadn't started yet, people just starting to gather around a stage. She weaved through the crowd and found Emma standing at the front. She took her elbow and squeezed into a half hug, "Hey, how are you feeling?"

"I'm... feeling," Emma shrugged.

"That's enough on a day like this one," Athena answered.

Piper walked up to them, standing on Emma's other side, "Hey. You holdin' it together?"

"I'm trying," Emma chuckled.

Piper paused and bent forward, smiling and putting out her hand to Athena, "I don't think we've met. I'm Piper, the podcaster."

"I listen to your show some," Athena politely shook her hand. "I'm Athena."

"Thanks," Piper showed her gratitude, turning back to Emma. "So, Audrey, she really liked Rachel, huh?"

"I'm pretty sure the feeling was mutual," Emma answered. She paused when she saw Piper pull a face, "What?"

"Um, it's just..." the older woman trailed off. "I talked to Rachel's parents, and they said that Audrey really intimidated Rachel. And that she could get her to do things that she wouldn't normally do."

Emma frowned, "Maybe that's the only way her parents could justify their daughter liking a girl."

Piper nodded, "Mmm, maybe. Sure. It's just... it's hard to know the truth unless you have the whole story." She gave Emma a pat on the shoulder and then made her way through the crowd.

Brooke walked over to them with a box of the candles, "You ready?"

"Yeah," Emma said, taking some candles out.

Brooke turned to Athena, "Would you mind?"

"Not at all," Athena smiled, taking some candles too and walking off with Emma to pass them out.

"Miss Duval," a woman stopped them. They turned to see a black woman with long hair and a pant suit on. "I'm Detective Lorraine Brock. I was hoping I could speak with you?"

"Uh, yeah," Emma murmured distractedly.

"Now's not a good time," Athena pitched in.

"No, no, no, I'm sorry. I meant tomorrow," Lorraine corrected. "You're Miss Tyler, right?"

"Yeah," Athena nodded, keeping her mouth straight.

"I'd like to meet with you too if that's possible," she added. "I'm working out of the Sheriff's office. So, uh, 7:30? If that's not too early."

Emma nodded, "Sure, I could do that. Athena?"

"Yeah," she agreed.

Lorraine nodded gratefully, "I'm sorry about your friends. I'll see you tomorrow."

The girls passed the candles around to everyone, slowly passing flame to flame. Athena stood off by a tree while Riley's friends went on the stage to make speeches in her honor. Emma took a shaky breath in front of the microphone, "Riley was six when her family moved to Lakewood. She was super tiny and completely silent. For the first couple of days in our class, I was convinced that she didn't speak English, so..." she chuckled, "This one day, I... tried speaking to her very loudly, thinking in my 6-year-old brain that maybe that would help. And then this one day, she just..." Emma was looking at something, distracted. Athena could tell. But when she searched the crowd she didn't see anything. "Turned to me and she said..."

Emma's cell phone chimed and she gave a little gasp, gulping and trying to continue, "She... um, sorry, she, uh, turned to me and she said... sorry," she broke away from the mic and stepped away.

Noah quickly stepped up to the mic and took over for her, "Uh, I think the point is, Riley got over her shyness. I mean, I knew that I would never have had the nerve to go up to someone as beautiful as her."

Athena heard Emma's phone chime again and looked to see the girl staring at her phone, in fear.

Noah was still talking, "But I'm so damn glad that she came up to me and.. and made..."

Athena wasn't listening anymore as she walked up to the stage and tugged on Emma's pant leg, "What's going on?"

Emma shook her head, handing her phone to Athena to show her the text – Tell the cop about me and you'll get your mother's heart in a box. Athena held in her gasp as she handed it back, Emma shoving the phone back into her pocket and whispered back, "He's not going to let us lie low."

* * *

Athena and Emma carpooled again to the Sheriff's station, this time in Athena's car. "This is a really cool car, Athena," Emma complimented.

"Thanks," Athena smiled, "my, uh, dad, built it for me when I started Junior year."

"Is it hard?" Emma asked gently as they neared the Sheriff's station. "Differentiating between the parents you grew up with and the parents you're with now? I mean, by blood the Tyler's are your parents and you were taken from them. But the way you talk about your kidnappers, you really loved them."

Athena nodded, "Yeah, I did. And they loved me too. We didn't really fight, we had a very good relationship. I would have never guessed at what they did. Sometimes, I still don't believe it and just wish it was some big joke. It's hard for me to imagine that these perfect parents that I loved so much were just criminals, that tore apart some family fourteen years ago. In my mind, I will always remember them as my parents and the Tylers will always feel like replacements. Right now they're strangers."

"Did you talk to Diana about knowing Gretchen?" Emma asked.

"More like screamed accusations at her," she muttered. "I'm just done being a doll. I'm done trying to ease into Jules' life and be who they would have raised, because they didn't raise me. And sometimes I feel guilty for that."

"Look, Athena," Emma put a hand on her shoulder as they pulled into a parking spot, "you're allowed to be who you are. And you were raised by different people, no matter who they really were, that loved you. You're allowed to be Athena, and not Jules. And even though your family is going through this all too, they can suck it up."

"Thanks," she smiled, then looked over at the Sheriff's station. "Are you ready for this?"

"No," Emma sighed. "Will you come in with me?"

"Try and stop me," she grinned, shutting off the car's engine and getting out of the car.

Maggie walked out to meet them, "Hello girls. Athena, Diana asked me to tell her that she was sorry she couldn't come in with you today."

"No worries," the younger girl quipped. "Let's just do this."

The three walked in where Lorraine greeted them and lead them to the Sheriff's office. Emma walked in first and Maggie took a seat at the bench outside. When Athena went to go inside, Lorraine stopped her, "I'll talk to Emma first and then you'll be in. I promise it won't take long."

"We prefer to talk to you together," Athena told her politely.

"I prefer to speak to you individually," Lorraine replied patiently, but Athena could tell that she was irritated.

So, Athena smirked and said, "too bad – we're going in together," and walked into the room to sit next to Emma.

She could tell she irked Lorraine but she didn't really care. She didn't have a lot of faith in the police force in this town – or the police force at all. Lately, she'd been thinking that if Gretchen lived in Lakeview, that the police should have looked at her and if they had, they would have found her and she would have been returned home a lot earlier than the present.

Lorraine took a second and shut the door, sitting down across from the two girls. She spoke to Emma first, "I understand someone was calling you."

"What?" Emma asked, confused as how she knew.

"I read the incident reports," she elaborated. "Now, I know that you doubted Tyler was the killer. You were right. So, what did this person have to say?"

Emma stammered a little, "Uh, nothing. It was just some Brandon James crank trying to scare me. I overreacted." She tried to laugh a little to play it off more, but Athena wasn't buying it.

"Did you know Rachel Murray?" Lorraine asked.

"No," Emma shook her head, "we have a mutual friend."

"You, Athena?" Lorraine turned to her.

Athena mimicked Emma, "Nope. We just had a mutual friend."

"Audrey Jensen," Lorraine named her. "Three of the victims were clearly related, but Rachel Murray's staged suicide, it's an anomaly. Well, it seems as though the killer wanted to send a message that only the medical examiner would get."

Emma looked out the window of the room to see her mother sitting outside on the bench, "Well, you'd have to ask my mom about that."

"That's right. Your mom is the M.E. Your dad is the only surviving victim of Brandon James," Lorraine narrated. "And you, your photo was found at that hospital. These aren't all coincidences, Emma. Are they?"

"It's not our job to figure that out," Athena cut in. "It's yours."

"Right," Lorraine agreed. "Just like it is my job to figure out how you are tangled in all of this. It's more than just your friendship with Emma. But I can't find out what, if I don't have all the information. Do you know anything that could help me?"

Athena shrugged, "I have no connection to Brandon James, I wasn't in town when the murders started, I knew none of the victims except for briefly meeting Riley, and I have only been involved in this mess to the extent of protecting my friends and doing your job for you. That's all."

When they were walking out, Maggie jumped off the bench to walk them out, "That was fast."

"We told her what we could," Emma muttered.

"Meaning what, exactly?" Maggie pushed.

Emma stopped, turning on her mother, "You said there were things you couldn't tell me because you wanted to protect me."

Maggie nodded, "I'm starting to regret that now."

"Too late. It goes both ways," Emma told her before they walked out.

"I wanna drop kick that bitch," Athena growled as they got back into her car.

Emma gave her a bemused look, "Drop kick her? What does that even mean?"

Athena shrugged without care, "Doesn't matter – she just makes me wanna do it," earning a laugh from Emma.

* * *

When Athena got done dropping off Emma and walked to her own front door, she stopped short seeing Elena sitting at the front steps. Elena jumped up eagerly upon seeing her and wrung her hands together, "Hey, Athena. I wanted to talk to you."

"I think enough was said yesterday," Athena walked around her to put her key in the door.

"I swear I'm not ashamed of you and you're not a secret," Elena insisted, following her up the steps.

"Have you told anyone about me then?" she asked, testing her expression.

Elena faltered, "Well no, but not because of what you think. Because it's so new, I don't want to jinx anything."

"It's a bit too late for that, don't you think?" Athena quipped, pushing the front door open. "I don't think you get it, Elena. Whether you're straight, bisexual or gay, you don't get to choose to be with someone and be embarrassed to tell others about them. You can't have me behind closed doors and then pretend we're just friends in front of your parents and other school people. I'm not ashamed of my identity. Figure it out and don't bug me until you do because I can't do it for you."

With the last word, she walked into the house and closed the front door. She sighed, hearing voices in the living room so she walked over to see Ian and Sam playing video games and shoving each other. Sam looked up and smiled when he saw her, "Hey, how was it?"

She knew he was referring to the meeting with Lorraine, "It was fine. Told her what we could and got out of there."

"We saw that girl waiting for you, who's she?" Ian asked, still shooting at zombies on the screen.

"That's her girlfriend," Sam answered. "Why didn't you bring her in?"

"She's not my girlfriend," Athena gave as her answer and made her way upstairs.

* * *

Emma was pouring coffee into a customer's cup as a top off when she heard Brooke's voice say, "Look, I cannot just keep lying to Emma."

She whipped her head over to see Brooke and Jake talking at the table by the window, "Lying to me about what?"

Jake looked at Brooke and shrugged, "Do what you gotta do," and made his way off.

Emma put her coffee pot down and pours her own cup before she took Jake's seat across from Brooke, "You want to tell me what's going on?"

Brooke was jittery and seemed nervous, her fingers tapping her own cup of coffee, "Okay. So, before I say what I have to say..." she sighed, "How hot is your coffee?"

Emma answered her slowly, "Uh, well, it's coffee, so it's hot."

Brooke nodded, pursing her lips and took the cup away from her, holding it close before she started talking, "Okay, so... Freshman year, before we were friends... you were this pristine Pollyanna type. And Nina thought you needed to be taken down a peg. So, one day at lunch, Will said he thought you were cute, and so Nina bet him that he couldn't sleep with you inside of a month."

Emma gaped, feeling a pain welling in her chest, "What?"

"He took the bet, walked over to you and..." Brooke elaborated.

"And he asked me to his game," Emma realized out loud, feeling like the stupidest girl on the planet, wanting the ground to just swallow her whole. "And that was the first time that we ever spoke. Oh, my god."

"I'm so sorry, Em," Brooke urgently added. "I know I should have told you sooner. But the more you became a part of the group, the harder it got to say anything."

Emma leaned back in her chair, gaping at the table, "Just when I thought this couldn't get any worse..."

"Hey, if you want hit me, it's cool," Brooke offered. She squeezed her eyes shut in preparation, "Just go ahead."

Emma lifted her eyes to Brooke's face, "I could say I don't want to be friends with you anymore."

Brooke frowned deeply, opening her eyes and keeping them downcast, "You could."

Emma sighed, "But after losing Riley and Nina..."

"I'm so sorry, Em," Brooke repeated.

Emma smiled bitterly, "Everyone lies. And everyone's sorry. Just like he said. I gotta go back to work." She got up and walked back to the front counter to get the refreshed coffee pot and get back to work in an attempt to forget what she just heard.

* * *

Athena had only been in her room long enough to settle into her bed with a book when there was a knock at her door. She set the book aside and called out, "Come in."

Sam poked his head into the room, "Hey, I figured someone should talk to you. Since Ian is shit at talking about feelings and you're not exactly talking to Diana and Till, I came up."

"Talk about what?" Athena asked, sitting back against the headboard.

"That girl, I guess," he answered, coming to sit next to her. "What happened?"

She shrugged, forcing nonchalance, "It's not a big deal. She's just – she just wasn't as comfortable with her sexuality. She wanted us to be a secret and I'm not okay with that."

Sam sat so they were shoulder to shoulder and leaned his head back against the wall, "Good, you shouldn't be okay with something like that. If she doesn't realize that she should be proud to walk down the hallways holding your hand, then she doesn't deserve you."

Athena snorted, "Funny you should say something like that. This whole thing ended because I tried to hold her hand and she pulled away. I called her out on it and that was that."

Sam shifted to put his arm around her shoulders, "Are you okay?"

She shrugged again, "M'fine."

"Athena," there was a scolding lilt to his voice. She looked down but she could feel him looking right at her. "You don't have to pretend you're okay. Not even just about this girl. Ian told me what you and Diana fought about the other night. You don't have to fake it."

"I'm just tired," she murmured, hearing that he was genuine and feeling herself break down under his stare. "I just feel like nearly everyone in my life is fake. Like no one is who I thought they were. My parents that I grew up with my whole life, were criminals who stole me. And then I find out Diana knew Gretchen, this whole time, and said nothing. Elena made the first move in our relationship and then she turns out to want to stay in the closet. I mean, who am I supposed to trust? I think since I've moved here the only person who's told me the truth is you. I don't think Emma tells me everything."

"You can trust me," Sam reassured her. "I swear."

Athena looked up at him, sniffing a little and giving him a smile, "I believe you."

"Good," he murmured, pulling her into his side, letting her cry into his shirt.

* * *

As soon as Emma's shift was over, she rushed out of the coffee shop and nearly took Piper down on the sidewalk. The older woman held her arms up, "Hey, hey. I've been worried about you. How are you doing?"

Emma shook her head, feeling her throat dry up, her voice breaking as she answered, "I don't know."

As she started sobbing, Piper rushed to comfort her and ease her into the bench near them, "Hey, shh. Come here." They sat down and Piper sighed, taking looks around them, "Okay, uh... so, there may be some warm soothing bourbon-type liquid in this flask," she sneakingly dug out a small flask from her laptop bag, "but I could never offer it to a minor, but, um.." she held it out.

Emma took it gingerly, "I'll take it." She chuckled, taking a gulp, "Thank you." She took a breath, "I just want to believe in something that doesn't turn to utter crap."

Piper snorted, "Yeah, I hear that."

Emma frowned, "Aren't you supposed to say something like, 'Hang in there – it's gonna get better?'"

"I could, but it'd be a lie," Piper scoffed. "Life is like Charlie Brown and his football. That bitch Lucy keeps yanking it away, but you gotta keep kicking."

"What got yanked away from you?" Emma asked.

Piper frowned in contemplation, "Well, it would just sound like some angsty southern playwright BS."

Emma sniffed, "Tell me."

"My dad was murdered," Piper heaved a sigh. "And the police never solved it. Honestly, I don't think they tried."

Emma frowned deeply, "I'm so sorry."

Piper gave her a small smile, "Thanks."

"Is that why you do this?"

She nodded, "Yeah. I started to ask questions as soon as I could talk, and I kind of never stopped. So, I guess we both have dark daddy issues."

The girls both shared a laugh, Emma stopping with pursed lips, "Hey, Piper, I... I know my dad's alive, but he's been gone for most of my life. So... I know how hard that is."

Piper sighed, "Well, we all have our demons. Right?"

"Yeah," Emma nodded.

"Hang in there," Piper quoted her statement earlier with a grin. "Okay?"

Emma nodded as Piper made her way into the coffee shop. When her head was turned, she saw Will rushing over to her, "Hey, I was hoping you were working today."

"Will, do not," she glared as she stood from the bench.

"Whoa, you all right?" Will asked, holding up his hands.

"I was a bet?" she hissed at him.

Will instantly paled, "I... Em, I'm so sorry. You have every right to be mad."

She scoffed harshly, "Oh, thank you so much for your permission! Of course I am mad, Will. I am humiliated! Just yesterday, you were swearing to me that you have no idea how this happened. And now I find out that everything was a lie? I mean, how is it possible that that is all that I was to you?"

Will rushed to reassure her, "No, Em, that's never all you were to me!"

Emma continued as if he'd never spoken, "And you know what the worst part is? The worst part is you didn't even have the guts to tell me in all of the time that we were together. I had to find out from Brooke."

"Okay, look, Nina's," he tired to assure her again, to get her back however he could, "Nina's challenge was messed up, no doubt, okay? But that's never what you were to me. This was real. Em, I love you!"

She snorted, "Wow. You sound like a bad romantic comedy. Except we didn't meet cute. We met sick-twisted. There's no going back."

Will let out a shaky breath and tried to take her hand, "Em?"

She roughly yanked her hand away, "Do not touch me!"

Will sighed, pulling his hand back, "Can't we please just talk?"

She shook her head, "No, we can't. Because we're not friends. We're not together. We're done." She walked away, ignoring his calling of her name behind her.

* * *

Athena had been working on her homework at her desk when there was another knock at her door. Sam had left already so she didn't know who'd be there to talk to her. She called out a quiet, "Come in," and was surprised to see a bereaved yet irritated Emma walk in. "Emma?"

"Hey," she replied, seeming wound up. "You know what's messed up? I feel like you and Audrey are the only ones in this stupid town that I can trust anymore."

"What?" Athena gaped, a little taken aback. "How is that?"

"I talked to Brooke today," Emma breathed, sitting at the foot of the bed. "She told me that in Freshman year, the only reason Will ever spoke to me was because Nina bet him that he couldn't get me to sleep with him in under a month."

Athena's mouth fell open even more, "That's so fucked up."

Emma nodded, tearing up, "I know, right? I mean, who does that? Then Will showed up and kept insisting that to him it was more than a bet. He said he loves me and I just keep thinking; what a cliché."

Athena shrugged, "Well, I mean, he's probably telling the truth."

"What?" Emma turned her eyes on her.

She sighed, standing so she could sit next to Emma, "Think about it. If it was really just about the bet, and he didn't care about you at all, would he have stayed with you this whole time after he got what he wanted?"

Emma turned contemplative, her eyes shifting between her lap and Athena's face, "I..."

"I'm not standing up for him," Athena corrected herself. "I'm not saying he's a stand up guy and that he deserves you. It's a messed up foundation for a relationship to be based on a bet and a sex tape and he should have told you from the get-go. But I think it's important for you to believe that he did, honestly, love you, and take comfort in that."

Emma sniffed and nodded, leaning forward to hug the other girl tightly, "Thank you. I just feel like everyone's lying to me about something and I don't know where to turn half the time."

Athena patted her back, "Everyone has their stuff. As long as they're honest about the important stuff, none of that matters. I'm here for you."

Emma nodded into her shoulder and pulled back a little, "Yeah, you're right." Her face fell a little as she stared at Athena. She tentatively tilted her head and leaned forward, pressing her lips to hers. It was chaste and slow and all around nice.

Athena let Emma kiss her until she was ready to pull back and then asked, "What are you doing, Emma?"

"I'm—I'm sorry," Emma blushed, dipping her head.

Athena gently smiled and cupped Emma's face to pull her up to look at her, "Don't be sorry. Don't be confused. This isn't the time, place or person for you Emma, and I think you know that. It's okay to have your moments, but I'm telling you right now that I'm not this person for you. I'm your friend."

"I know," Emma breathed, nodding emphatically. "I just wanted to feel close to someone I can trust."

"We can be close without being close," Athena teased her, pecking her lips a little to emphasize her point. "Don't worry, Emma. Everything going on right now will be a memory eventually. This guy will mess up – they all do at some point. In the meantime, I'm here for you, and we'll figure this all out together."

"Thank you," she repeated, going for another hug.

Athena just hugged her, hoping to bits that what she had said would turn out to be true.


	6. Pick a Perp

Athena felt utterly mundane the next morning even though she doubted she would live a normal day in this town for a long while yet. Still, she went through the motions – woke up, got dressed, grabbed a banana for breakfast and went on her way in her own car to school. She pulled into a spot and saw Noah rushing up to Audrey just outside the school. She greeted them with a, "You look excited today. What's up?"

Noah and Audrey shared a short look before Audrey gave Noah and nod and the boy caught her up to speed with their doubts about Seth Branson the English teacher and the spy malware they found attached to their Language Arts homework.

"What a creep!" Athena complained, blanching. "So, you think Branson killed Nina, Tyler and Riley to keep his pervy secret? I mean, I doubt Nina was his pawn and not the other way around. Based on what I've heard about her, that'd be my guess."

"Whatever it all is, Branson is definitely hiding something," Noah said as they walked through the courtyard. "I did some digging into Mr. Seth Branson. You know what I found?"

"He doesn't exist?" Audrey guessed.

Noah gave her a look, "No. Come on, it's 2015, I found four guys –  _none_  of whom are our Mr. Branson."

"How do you know that you just haven't found him yet?" Athena asked him, keeping her eyes on the teacher as she spotted him speaking with a couple students.

"This Mr. Branson didn't exist until he moved to Lakewood," Noah revealed. "You don't change your name unless you've got a secret."

"Like me?" Athena asked sarcastically.

"Like trolling teens through their web-cams to find a victim," Audrey elaborated.

"The cops are looking for a perp just like him," Athena said, discretely gesturing to him. "Why don't you tell them?"

"He could just be your garden-variety psychopath," Noah shrugged.

"Branson as Manson?" Audrey questioned. "I don't buy it."

"Neither did the victims of the BTK Killer till they were staring down the business end of a boning knife," Noah pointed out.

"I thought he was your favorite teacher," Audrey said as they stopped across the courtyard from Branson.

"He is," Noah sighed, exasperated, "which is why the possibility is so alarming."

"Maybe Athena is right," Audrey looked between them. "Maybe Nina wasn't just involved, she was the mastermind."

"She seems the right kind of nasty," Athena supported. "She had a way of talking people into whatever she wanted. And as his TAs, she and Tyler had access to Branson's computer and the Language Arts homework."

"Nina could have blackmailed Branson about whatever he's hiding and made him plant the malware if she couldn't do it herself," Audrey theorized with her.

"Then anyone she trolled could have motive," Noah pointed out.

"The guys she slept with..." Audrey listed.

"The guys she didn't," Noah added. "The girls who envied her, and the ones who despised her."

"So, everyone?" Athena guessed. "Except me, of course."

"Including us," Noah pointed between himself and Audrey.

"Wait, where are you on that list?" Audrey asked her best friend.

"Duh, I'm making the list," he told her, letting his face go slack in a creepy stare.

After a moment of silence and Athena started to get uncomfortable, Audrey smiled, "Nice resting creep face."

Noah broke into a grin, "Back at ya," and bumped fists with her.

"We get it, you're good at looking creepy," Athena broke in, "Let's go to class."

* * *

Athena didn't think Branson would have them get with their scene partners and just let them work on their scene for the class period. She didn't exactly want to work with Elena anymore, but she wasn't a child. She could suck it up and act professional for the project.

Elena was reading her lines outside when she broke off and sighed, "Can we please just talk about this?"

Athena let out a little huff and let her papers drop to her desk, "What is there to talk about? I told you – figure it out on your own."

"How can I when you won't even talk to me?" Elena brushed her hand through hair, looking frustrated. "I can't do this alone."

"Too bad," Athena shrugged, forcing herself to act nonchalant. "It's tough but it's doable and that's the only way you're gonna figure out what you are for your own happiness – not for me or what people expect of you. I'm not going to play girlfriends with you and then have you freeze out on me again. That's it. End of story. I have enough to deal with, I don't need your push pull game too."

"This isn't a game," Elena protested. "I promise. I'm sorry. I just want us to be okay."

"We're fine," Athena assured her, really meaning it. "We're scene partners, we're friends. And that's how it's gonna stay – okay?"

Elena pouted just a little bit, "That's it?"

"That's all there can be," Athena told her. "I have to protect myself first."

Before anything else could be said, two officers opened the door in the back, "Mr. Branson?"

Athena briefly thought the police had caught onto the malware scam just as Noah and Audrey had, and knew Branson wasn't who he said he was and were taking him in. But instead, Officer one said, "We have some questions for one of your students. Audrey Jensen?"

All eyes went to Audrey who looked like a deer in the headlights as the other officer gestured for her to stand, "We're gonna need you to come with us."

* * *

As soon as Branson let them out of class, Noah dragged Athena after him into the band room with Emma, "What the Hell could the cops want with Audrey?"

Emma looked worried but tried to play it off, "I don't know. Maybe they just wanted to ask her some questions about Rachel."

"They wouldn't pull her out of class for that," Athena countered, biting down on her lower lip.

Noah sighed, "It could be Branson," looking at Athena.

"What?" Emma asked, confused.

"We found out the web-cam malware came from his homework server," Noah explained to her. "And he's using a fake name."

"Mr. Branson brings his soup to school in a Thermos," Emma said.

Athena gave the girl a look, "Stop being so naive, Emma. Serial killers and psychos are often the most normal people in the real world – they're all someone's family or friend and even mentor."

"Mr. B may have seen us on his laptop," Noah thought out loud. "If he thought we could expose him, maybe he found a way to implicate Audrey as payback..."

The heavy room door opened up and the teens looked to see Mr. Branson himself poking his head inside.

Noah gave a nervous smile and wave, "Mr. Branson! Hew! Hi! Um... Hi. We were just..."

"Discussing class," Athena pitched in, saving him.

"Well, that's actually what I wanted to discuss as well," Branson looked at Noah, "and considering your propensity for speeches, I'm thinking monologue."

Noah started to stammer as Branson put an arm around him, "Oh, I don't know. I'm kinda shy."

"Let me show you some options," Branson consoled him, leading him out of the room.

"Let's hope he doesn't end up on Branson's wall," Athena quipped.

"We should wait for him outside in the hall," Emma suggested.

"They may think it's Branson, and maybe he is doing some skeevy things," Athena said, "but I'm more suspicious of the new cop."

"Lorraine?" Emma questioned.

"I noticed some things about her so I did some recon on her," Athena explained, leaning against a locker. "She used to be a drug addict, nearly lost her job. Part of the reason she ended up here was that her prescient didn't want her anymore."

"Seriously?" Emma gasped.

Before Athena could elaborate, Noah walked out of the room and Emma immediately asked him what happened in there. Noah was a little out of sorts as he answered, "Henry the Fifth or Napoleon Dynamite – I gotta admit, Mr. Branson so gets my deep-seated hero conflict."

"Cool," Emma said, "I was ready to call 911."

"Maybe Branson really isn't the killer," Noah admitted, at a loss. "Maybe he's not a psychopath. If Tyler loaded the malware for Nina while he was the student aide, Mr. B could just be this innocent pawn."

"But what about his fake name?" Emma asked.

"Maybe he hated his real one and just changed it," Athena shrugged.

"I got a way to figure it out," Noah said, taking out his phone. "I asked Mr. B to input his number into my phone, in case I wanted to rap about monologues. I programmed this app to record his fingerprints. If we can trace the past... we can find out if our beloved Mr. White is actually Heisenberg."

Athena's phone rang and she pulled it out to see Audrey's name, "It's Audrey." She swiped the green button and put the phone to her ear, "Audrey, what is going on? Why'd they take you in?"

"Athena, no time, listen – I need a huge favor," Audrey rushed out in a hushed voice.

"Anything," she promised.

"What is she saying?" Noah tried to press his ear to the other side of her cell phone to listen.

"Go to my house," Audrey whispered. "Get the SD card from September 30th... and destroy it. And..." she heaved a sigh, "please don't watch it."

The line cut out after that and Athena put her phone away, "Noah, can you direct us to Audrey's house?"

"Sure, but I doubt anyone's home," Noah said as Athena just started walking for the exit, leading him and Emma to her car.

"She asked us to find the SD marked September 30th and destroy it," Athena shrugged, nonplussed by the request.

"That's the night Nina filmed her and Rachel," Noah thought out loud.

"The night Nina was killed," Emma gasped.

"We all know Audrey didn't have anything to do with it," Athena insisted as she drove with Noah's directions.

"But how do we actually know that?" Emma whimpered.

"Because she only has a motive to kill Nina, not Riley or Rachel," Athena explained. "And we know their murders are connected and the same person who told you about your mom. I mean – how would Audrey know about that? She was a minor, her name was never in the records. Audrey was also with Noah when Riley was killed. She has no connection."

"And we can't find anyone who does!" Emma exclaimed.

"Let's just focus on getting this SD card," Athena said, getting out of the car as they pulled up down the street from Audrey's house.

They sped into Audrey's backyard and Emma went to a potted plant, picking it up to look under it. She sighed, putting it down, "Damn. They used to hide their key there."

"I'm guessing it's been a while since you've been to her house," Athena said, plucking a bobby pin from her hair and kneeling down by the door, working on the lock. After a few moments, it clicked open and they rushed inside and up the stairs.

"Why am I not surprised that you know how to do that?" Noah joked behind the girls.

"Where does she keep her SD cards?" Emma asked, going to the desk.

"What do I look like, her personal assistant?" Noah remarked, going to the dresser.

"Well, you look like someone who might know where she would keep her SD cards," Emma responded.

"Man, she is so disorganized," Noah complained, going through clothes.

"Found it," Athena cheered, picking up a box of SD cards from Audrey's nightstand. She flipped through them until she found the right one, putting it in her bra. "Let's get out of here."

They heard a car door slam shut and went to the window to see Lorraine and a few other cops coming towards the house. "Oh, frak," Noah cursed. "We got the policia. We gotta get out of here now."

"They'll be using the front door and we can't take the stairs without them seeing us," Athena spoke out loud, looking around the room for an answer. "Out the window it is."

"What?" Noah gaped at the girl as she opened the window and put a leg out. "Are you crazy?"

"What other choice do we have?" Athena gave him a look. "It's one story, just make sure to bend your knees. Roll if you have to."

"We have to get out of here," Emma agreed.

Athena went out first, keeping her form perfect as she landed on the grass. She helped break Emma and Noah's falls before they raced to her car and sped out of the neighborhood to Noah's workplace.

"I'll get a hammer," Noah went to a back room.

"Are we really destroying it?" Emma asked. "I mean, what do you think's on there?"

"I don't know," Athena answered as Noah walked in with a hammer.

"I don't want to break Audrey's trust," Emma hedged, "but whatever is on there must make her look really guilty."

"Of what?" Noah asked. "Murdering four people, including her girlfriend?"

"There's one thing I can't shake," Emma leaned on the glass case. "The guy who's been calling me? He should be rubbing this in my face right now. But since Audrey was taken in, I haven't heard one thing."

"That's it," Athena cursed, plucking the SD card from the counter and putting it back in her bra. "We are not watching this, and we are not destroying it. I'll keep it safe and sound right here," she patted her breast with a bit of a smirk. "Audrey is our friend, we know she didn't do this, and we're not going to watch this without her permission or theorize her guilt without her here to explain herself. Now, no arguing with me or I'll drop kick you."

"You're right," Noah sighed.

Emma's phone rang and she pulled it out, "Mom? – What? – No, of course not. – Okay. – Okay." She hung up the phone. She looked worried, "Detective Brock wants to see me at the Sheriff's station."

"They must think that she called you, not me," Athena thought. "Do you want me to come with you?"

"Would you?" Emma asked, like a child.

"Of course," Athena smiled. "I want to give that bitch a piece of my mind."

"Should you walk into the Sheriff's station with damning evidence against Audrey in your bra?" Noah asked, keeping his eyes trained on her face, deliberately not her chest.

"I don't think they're going to pat me down on the way in," Athena smirked, making her way out. She and Emma got in her car and drove to the station. "Remember, Audrey didn't call you. She called me. So, when she asks what Audrey wanted, I'll make something up."

"Like what?" Emma asked.

Athena shrugged, "What's a good enough lie? Maybe she wanted to let me know she was okay."

"Or to have Noah call her mom and tell her that she's okay," Emma suggested. "Her mom's in Boston getting cancer treatments."

"That should make Lorraine feel like the grade A bitch she is," Athena cheered as they parked.

Lorraine's face was plain with distaste when she saw Athena with Emma, "I'd like to speak to Emma alone, Miss Tyler."

"See, that's not exactly legal," Athena smirked. "Seeing as she's a minor, you know? I'm surprised you  _still_  don't know that, being law enforcement."

"That's why her mother is here," Lorraine gestured to Maggie as she walked over.

"Let's cut to the chase, Raine," Athena walked into the office with Emma behind her, making the older woman follow and they all took seats.

Lorraine took a calming breath before she looked to Emma, "I know Audrey called you, Emma. You want to tell me what she said?"

"She didn't call me," Emma answered, matter of fact.

"You shouldn't lie to me, Emma," Lorraine responded.

"She's not," Athena cut in. "Audrey called me."

Lorraine turned her gaze to Athena, "Then would  _you_  like to tell me what she said to you, Miss Tyler?"

Athena feigned a shocked look on her face, "You mean you're giving me a choice? How kind."

Lorraine glared, "Now's not the time for jokes."

In her head, she thought, " _You're the joke,_ " but she didn't say that. Instead, she sighed, "She wanted me to let her mom know that she's okay. She doesn't want to cause her stress. She's over in Boston getting cancer treatments."

Lorraine frowned, "I'm sorry that she's ill."

"Now that's a joke," Athena snided, tilting her head.

"I get it," Lorraine leaned back in her chair. "You both want to protect your friend." She turned her gaze on Emma, picking her out as the weaker one. "But what if you're wrong?"

"I know Audrey," Emma insisted.

"You never know," Lorraine countered. "Every killer is someone's friend. Someone's family."

"If these girls say they don't know anything, then they don't," Maggie cut in. "Can we go now?"

"Okay," Lorraine nodded. She stood as they did, "But if I'm right... if Audrey goes free and someone else dies, you are just as guilty as she is."

"That's not fair," Athena nearly yelled, stepping in front of Emma protectively. "We didn't do this,  _any_  of this, and neither did Audrey. You would know that at least if you bothered to do your job instead of harass us all the time. None of these deaths are on us. But how many deaths are on you, huh, Raine?"

"What are you implying?" Lorraine's voice grew hard.

"How many people died, or got hurt? Or how many bad people got away while you were too busy getting high?" Athena responded, keeping her face blank.

Lorraine balked, "How did you...?"

"Unlike you, I know how to figure things out," Athena cut her off. "So, get off your high horse and do your god damn job instead of trying to turn teenagers against each other so you can tie up this case with a neat little bow and go home to your favorite spoon and needle." With that said, she tugged on Emma's arm and pulled them out of the office.

Maggie followed after, "Athena, that was uncalled for."

"Seriously?" Athena laughed, turning on the older woman. "She tries to guilt Emma into turning on Audrey by blaming her for her friends' brutal murders and my pointing out her sordid past and unprofessional tendencies is taking things too far?"

"Let's just breath," Emma tried to calm her friend. "Mom, I know this looks bad. But I can't help feeling that someone wants it to look that way."

Maggie nodded, sighing, "You both go on. I have to check something. I'll see you at home."

* * *

Athena hid the SD card in a locked box she kept in her closet. It was where she kept the things of her past that she wanted safe. Photos of her and her parents, her old yearbooks, memories of her old life. She was putting the box away when someone knocked at her door. "Come in."

Sam poked his head in, "Hey, how are you doing?"

"Fine," Athena shrugged. "Did you just get here? You haven't been around for a couple days."

"Miss me?" he asked, giving her a smirk. "I had work."

"You know, I don't know what you do," Athena remarked, sitting on her bed.

"I work at the Botanical gardens," he answered with a slight blush on his dark complexion. "In the greenhouse."

"That sounds lovely," Athena smiled, her comment punctuated by the growl of her stomach.

Sam laughed, "Are you hungry? Wanna go out to get something?"

"Sure, but where's Ian?" Athena asked with a slight furrow in her brow.

Sam shrugged, "He went out apparently, without telling me. Some girl."

Athena grimaced, "Ian – with a girl?"

He laughed, "It doesn't happen often but it does happen."

"Let's go get food, I'm starving," Athena stood up, grabbing her sweater.

"How do you feel about pizza?" Sam asked. "Vegetarian, of course."

"Actually, I like pineapple," she smiled, linking her arm with his as they walked to the pizzeria nearby.

Sam blanched, "That's disgusting – unnatural."

"I'm sure people said the same thing about pepperoni," Athena stuck her tongue out at him.

"But that's delicious," he retorted, making sure to open the door for her when they arrived. He ended up paying for a large pizza – half veggie and pineapple and half pepperoni and sausage.

"Tell me something about you, Sam," Athena requested. "I feel like every time we talk, we're talking about me and my problems."

"You have big problems," Sam shrugged. "It's no issue helping you with them."

"Still," she pouted a bit. "How's it working at the gardens? What's your mom like? How long have you and Ian been friends?"

He gave a bit of a laugh, "Well, let me see – it's fine, she's great, and all our lives."

"Really? You and Ian, together forever?"

"Well, my mom used to work with your dad and we were born around the same time," Sam explained. "Our moms wanted us to have instant friends so they put us into everything together, daycare, preschool, pewee baseball. And it worked."

"That's nice that you guys never grew apart, him going away to college and all," Athena murmured around a bite of pizza. "Were you guys troublemakers in High School?"

"No," Sam laughed. "Ian was the nerd and I was the soccer athlete."

"Ian is still a nerd," Athena smiled. "I see his college text books lying around all the time. I'm thankful I won't be majoring in theoretical physics."

"What do you want to do about college?" he asked, taking another huge bite of his food.

"I was going to go to Art School in Portland," she told him. "But then life happened."

"Hey, there's still plenty of Art Schools out here," Sam tried to assure her. "You can still go somewhere out here. Have the future you planned on."

"That future included the parents who raised me and moving in with my girlfriend, becoming this great artist," Athena shrugged. "That's not exactly going to happen now, is it?"

"Sometimes things don't go to plan," Sam responded gently. "I was going to try to become a police officer."

"You'd be about the only competent one," Athena grinned at him. "But why didn't you?"

He grew thoughtful, "After I graduated, turned 18, I was able to go back to my mom. She was on food stamps, in a trailer. I didn't have the money to go to college and she needed my help, so I stuck around to help her out. Got us an apartment in town about a year ago."

"That's really nice, Sam," she smiled, feeling a swell of admiration for him come over her. "Do you want to start walking back? We could watch a movie or something at the house?"

"Sure," he wiped off his mouth with a napkin and held the door for her again as they started walking back to her house arm in arm.

"What's your mom like?" Athena asked curiously, leaning a bit closer to him in the cold.

"She's a bit timid, actually," Sam shrugged. "My dad did a number on her before he took off so she looks at me like she's expecting me to run off too sometimes. But she's gentle, and warm, and a great cook."

"She sounds great," Athena hummed, laying her head on his arm.

Sam could feel himself blushing – if it was visible under his dark skin – at her proximity. When Ian had called him out for how close he was to Athena, he didn't realize that he was hitting the nail on the head. He liked her – plain and simple. He wanted to protect her, be there for her. He wanted to be with her too, but he didn't hold high hopes for that.

"She is great," he answered her comment. "She'd love you. Probably stuff you with cookies."

"I'd like that," Athena smiled as they walked back up to her front door. "To meet her, I mean."

"Really?" Sam smirked a bit, feeling a forbidden hope spring in his chest. "You want to meet my mom?"

Athena blushed a little, brushing her hair behind her ear as they stood on the front steps, "Well, sure, why not? She sounds great."

He grew a little sheepish pushing his hands into his pockets, "Yeah, I guess we could do that."

"Great," Athena smiled again, feeling a little ache in her cheeks. She started a little when she realized how close they were standing, looking up at him.

Sam looked down at her, also noticing how close they were, and feeling like the ground could swallow him whole any minute if he didn't do something about it. So, he did. He leaned down, slowly, almost daring himself to do it, or waiting for her to turn her head or grimace and tell him to stop. But she didn't, she just kept looking up at him. They could both feel themselves holding their breath as they got closer until finally, their lips descended on each other's.

Athena had never had a fireworks moment, but this certainly was one. She felt tingles in her stomach as his large arms wrapped around her waist and pulled her close to him. She couldn't believe that this was happening. She weaved her arms around his waist and huddled closer, letting their tongues slid against each other.

"Yowza!" a voice cried near them, making the pair break apart.

"Audrey!" Athena gasped, frantically wiping at her lips. "You're out of jail."

"Jail?" Sam questioned.

"Long story," Emma pitched in from next to Audrey, who had a teasing grin on her face.

"Sorry to break up the party," Audrey taunted, her arms crossed. "But Emma said you had – the  _thing_."

"Right," Athena replied, a little flustered. "It's in my room. I'll get it-" she cut off, looking at Sam, gaping.

"You can grab it and meet us at my house," Emma offered. "We have a lot to catch you up on too, it's important."

"I should get going," Sam coughed out, idly letting his hands dangle at his sides.

"Don't rush out on our account," Audrey smirked, getting tugged away by Emma. "You guys can fit in one more make out sesh before you give her back to us."

"I'm sorry," Athena cringed after the girls disappeared into Emma's house. "Audrey was dragged into the station today to get questioned about Rachel and Detective Brock can be a bit belligerent at times. I have Audrey's school work from today."

"It's okay," Sam was still a bit flustered as well, reaching to scratch his head. "I... I don't know what else to say."

"Me neither," Athena admitted. "Um, how about we just say goodnight for now? And promise to see each other tomorrow?"

"Okay," Sam breathed out, "sounds—sounds good."

"A goodnight kiss wouldn't be too out of bounds either," Athena shyly suggested, looking up at him through her lashes.

Sam gave a relieved smile and leaned closer to her again, kissing her softly. When they pulled away again, he pushed her hair back, "Goodnight, Athena."

"Goodnight Sam."

* * *

"Okay, how'd you break out?" Athena asked as Emma let her into the house and lead her up to the room.

"Emma vouched for me, said she was with me that night," Audrey explained.

"I just had to stand up for her," Emma flushed, "it was the only way I knew how. My mom told me about her and Brandon James being friends when they were kids. That he was kind to her. And after the murders, she still doubted that he did it. But she never spoke up or defended him and she wishes she did. So, I had to stand up for Audrey."

"Sounds like you're stepping up, kid," Athena bumped her fist against Emma's cheek. She then reached into her bra and pulled out the SD card to hand to Audrey, "Here ya go."

"Did you watch it?" Audrey asked, almost cringing.

"I wouldn't let them," Athena shrugged. "I figured it was something you were ashamed of, no use watching it without you here to explain it."

"Well," Audrey sighed, "that night, after the video got posted, I was really angry. I started ranting about getting back at Nina. Rachel filmed me, so later I would see what I was like and learn a lesson I guess. I got – really angry. I wanted to make Nina pay for what she did, but Rachel was trying to talk me out of it. I got so mad, I smacked the camera out of her hands. But then she took my keys and threw them out of the window. I was so angry. I was searching the brush like a lunatic. But... but she stopped me from doing something horrible that night."

"Why keep it if you said all that?" Athena asked, sitting next to Emma at the foot of her bed.

"I kept it to remind myself never to lose control like that again," Audrey confessed. "And... and it's one of the last videos I have of her. I guess I couldn't let it go."

"Well," Emma gestured to the SD card in her hands, "you don't have to."


	7. Heads Will Roll

Athena's stomach quivered in delight at the feel of Sam's weight on top of her, moaning as his lips dragged down the skin of her neck. She gasped out words of wisdom, "Okay, we – we really do need to talk about this. Figure out what – this is."

"Yeah, yeah," Sam mumbled through kisses, bringing his lips to hers. His jacket lay forgotten on the floor and her shirt was bunched up next to her head on her pillow. His hands trailed down her stomach, she froze when they landed on the button of her jeans. He pulled back, "I'm sorry—sorry."

"It's fine," she murmured, a bit embarrassed. She sat up as he got off of her and pulled on her shirt, "It's just, I've never had sex with a guy."

"Oh, you're a virgin," Sam realized, standing up. "I-"

"I'm not a virgin," Athena insisted, cutting him off. "I lost it to Dido before everything went down. I've just never been with a guy. It's a different hurdle."

"I don't want to push you," Sam assured her. "And I do want to figure whatever this is out. It's just complicated. You're my best friend's little sister – long lost sister. Ian's protective of you. Just the thought of us together nearly gave him an ulcer."

"When was this?" she asked, giving him a second look as she picked up a sweater and her book bag.

"When we all went out to the movies," he confessed. "He badgered me about what was going on between us and at that point there wasn't anything going on."

"Well, there's no use telling him anything different until we've figured out what's going on for ourselves," Athena compromised. "So, your bromance with Ian is safe for now. I have to get to school, I'm taking Emma today."

Sam grabbed his jacket, "Okay, but we should get together tonight – talk. Actually talk, not grope in your room and put it off until one of us has to leave."

Athena laughed, "Okay, okay, we will. I'll text you, okay?"

"Okay," he agreed, leaning down to kiss her before he walked out of the room. Athena grabbed her bag and sighed – another mundane day that wouldn't be really mundane by the end of it.

* * *

Emma seemed a bit off in the passenger's seat until Athena finally asked her what was up. "Kieran and I are... something. It's just confusing trying to figure it out. And then there's Will."

"And it's confusing for you," Athena guessed. "That's understandable. You and Will were together for a long time. But he hurt you. Even if you forgive him, do you really think you'll be able to be with him again?"

"No," Emma answered almost instantly.

"Then that paves the way for you to see what this 'something' is with Kieran," Athena nudged her as she parked. "That's a good thing. We're all young, we don't need to get hung up on the past and forget about the opportunities of the future."

"I just feel so guilty," Emma murmured. "I don't know why."

"It's natural," Athena told her. "Sam and I are trying to figure out what the hell last night was about."

"And then there's Elena," Emma added.

"Not anymore," Athena denied. "When things don't work out, they don't work out. There's no use backing up over the body to beat it up even more."

"So, you're saying I should definitely move on from Will?" Emma guessed, insecurely looking to her friend for direction.

"I don't want to tell you what to do," Athena said as they stopped off at her locker. "But could anything happen that would erase what he did?"

"No," Emma shook her head, "nothing I can think of." Her phone pinged and she pulled it up to look at a text, frowning.

"What is it?" Athena asked, concerned.

Emma flipped her phone around to show her the text from Will. Now, Athena was frowning, "Tried to fix it but failed? Fix what? Failed how?"

"I don't know," Emma replied helplessly. "Will you come with me to look for him? I just... I'm worried but I don't trust myself to be alone with him."

"Of course," Athena readily agreed, following Emma around the High School.

They checked Will's locker, the gym and the quad before finding Brooke and Jake at Brooke's locker, "Hey!" Emma called. "Um, have either of you guys seen Will?"

"Not since practice last night," Jake answered. "But he was feeling pretty rock-bottom. So, I bet he was hella-deep in a bottle of his dad's cheap-label whiskey."

Brooke scoffed, "Which is exactly where he belongs."

"Bleeding hearts, the both of you," Athena sneered. "He sent Emma a weird text."

"He texted me that he tried to fix things last night, but it failed," Emma explained. "I don't know. It was weird."

Jake gave a glance to Brooke, "You said your dad went out last night?"

"Yeah," Brooke murmured.

Jake licked his lips, "I think I may know who he was meeting."

"What are you talking about?" Emma asked, looking between the two, wondering what other secrets her friends could possibly be hiding from her.

Brooke sighed, "Jake found out that Will's been blackmailing my dad. He had a video of him doing something pretty bad."

"Jake found out, huh?" Athena thinly accused, giving narrowed eyes to the boy. "But what does that have to do with where Will is?"

"I don't know. We don't know. Right, Jake?" Brooke said. He didn't say anything so she gave him a look, "Right, Jake?"

All of the sudden, Piper the podcaster wedged herself between Brooke and Jake and looked dead at Emma, "We need to talk."

Next thing Athena knew she was accompanying the others at this dingy warehouse, "What the Hell is this place?"

"This is the place where Will and I did the money drop with the Mayor," Jake answered.

Athena rolled her eyes, "I knew you were playing innocent."

"I can't believe you tried to put all of the blame on Will," Brooke spat at him. "Such a dick."

"I'm sorry," Jake drawled. "But let's look at the bigger picture, okay? Like, if it wasn't for us, you wouldn't even know about your dad. So, I think that that should carry a..."

"Guys, stop!" Emma cut them off. "Okay? We've all done bad things. Can we just focus on finding Will?"

They quieted and Piper took over, continuing her explanation of what happened last night, "So, Will wanted to return the money and the phone with the video on it. He was trying to do the right thing, and he wanted a witness, and I wanted a story."

Brooke glared, "So, uh, you're gonna tell that story?"

"Well, it's kind of what I do," Piper answered. "But let's just focus on finding your friend first."

"Where exactly is he?" Athena asked, looking around the dark place.

"The Mayor left, and then that masked freak showed up," Piper went on. "He tried to kill me, and Will... Will saved my life. I came to, my head was pounding, Will was gone, and I found this." She gestured to a wall with a crude message spray painted on it.

NO COPS EMMA.

"Oh my god," Emma whimpered.

Piper swayed on her feet and grabbed her head, groaning.

Athena grasped her arm, "You okay?"

"Just a mild concussion but I'm okay," Piper assured her, still groaning.

"Brooke, Jake, get her out of here," Athena pushed the woman towards Jake. "I'm going to catalog this place and meet you out there."

Jake and Brooke did as told and Athena started taking photos with her phone of the message on the wall and the area Piper said the killer attacked and she got her. Afterwards, she saw Emma staring blankly at the message and went to stand with her, "What are you thinking right now?"

"The bastard took Will," Emma hissed, staring up at the message.

"I know the wall says no cops, but..." Athena trailed off, cut short by the phone ringing.

Emma answered, turning the volume up enough so Athena could hear the whole conversation.

Will's desperate voice sounded over the line, " _Emma? Emma, help!_ "

"Will?" she whimpered, "are you okay?"

The killer's deep techno voice answered her, " _Hello, Emma. Missing something?_ "

"You son of a bitch, where is he?" Emma growled.

" _You broke his heart. He's moved on._ "

"Oh, my god," Emma cried. "Is he dead?"

" _Now, what would be the fun in that?_ "

"Okay," Emma took in a shaky breath. "Don't hurt him. Where is he?"

" _I thought you were done with him._ "

She hesitated, "That's not what I meant. Just... what do you want?"

" _New game, hide and seek. Just like Daisy and Brandon used to play._ "

"I know about Daisy and Brandon," Emma told him. "My mom told me everything."

The voice snapped, " _Your mom's a lying whore! In time, you'll know the truth. But first, you better find Will!_ " Then Will's voice sounded again, " _Emma! No!_ " and the phone cut out.

Emma seemed to be nearly hyperventilating at this point so Athena had to comfort her, taking her shoulders in her hands, "Emma? Hey, look at me, we're going to go to my house and grab my taser and stun gun – and I may or may not have a knife, don't tell anyone about it – and then we're gonna go to Noah and get him to track Will's phone and we're gonna go get him, okay? Got it, Emma?" The girl wasn't answering, just nodding along while crying. So, Athena shook her shoulders and raised her voice, "I need you to say it out loud, Emma. We're gonna go get him. It's gonna be okay!"

"Okay," she whimpered. "We're gonna go get him. It's gonna be okay."

"Okay, let's go," Athena grabbed her hand and pulled her out. They went to her house to grab the artillery before going to Noah's workplace, all the while Emma was trying to get a hold of Audrey.

Noah smiled when he saw them, "Hey, how are my partners-in-crime? I was just about to start a new Pathfinder campaign if you're up for some non-felonious fun."

"Noah, do you have any idea where Audrey is?" Emma asked. "She's not answering her phone."

"Uh, she's taking the midterm she missed in the clink," Noah told them. "Her phone's off. You okay?"

"No, not really," Emma sighed. "Look, Will needs help."

"Finding his moral compass?" Noah joked.

"No, finding him," Athena cut in, not wanting to waste time. "Can you track his phone before the killer adds him to his kill list?"

Noah gulped, "Yes, I can."

He went to work on his equipment, pulling a whole boy with the dragon tattoo in Athena's opinion until he cheered, "DRADIS contact. I've got the phone. It's someplace out past the crossroads."

They heard the door open and Brook's voice, "We're going with you."

"Guys, no," Emma denied.

"Emma, don't be stupid," Athena stood up, brandishing her stun gun. "Going in alone is guaranteed death sentence even if you are the chosen one."

"This psycho is playing sick games," Emma pointed out. "I cannot ask you guys to come."

"You're not asking, we're telling," Athena retorted.

"We got your back," Jake added. "And Will's."

* * *

Noah directed them in Athena's car to this abandoned building passed the crossroads, brick and boarded up. Noah squinted at his phone, "Spotty cell signal, but this is definitely the area."

"Okay," Jake pulled out his backpack, "creepy building, psycho killer. Time to weapon up. I got a skinner and a gut hook." He pulled out two large blades.

Brooke grimaced, "Wait, why, exactly?"

"To skin and gut things?" Jake stated obviously.

Emma pulled out her ringing phone and cursed, "Crap, it's Kieran. We were supposed to have dinner with my mom and his dad – like, right now."

"Well, get him to cover for you and let's get this done," Athena told, gesturing away from the group so she'd have privacy. She then cursed herself, remembering that she was supposed to meet up with Sam that night. She pulled out her own phone, texting him quickly. She apologized, asked for a rain check, and assured him she wasn't flaking on him. She then put her phone on silent, knowing that with her luck, she'd be hiding in a dark corner from the killer just for her phone to start ringing and give her away.

Emma hung up with Kieran and looked at the boarded up doors, "We gotta find a way in. Noah and I are gonna go this way. And we'll meet you around back."

"That sounds like the first of many bad decisions," Noah joked.

"I'll go with you Noah, and protect you," Athena teased, holding out her stun gun.

"You got any weapons for me?" Noah gulped as he followed the girls away from the front of the building.

"I am not giving you a weapon, you'll end up hurting yourself," Athena denied.

"This doesn't feel right," Emma interrupted them. "I mean, why is he changing the game all of the sudden?"

"It's 'cause he's playing chess instead of checkers," Noah theorized. "It started with Riley, and now Will. He's making you responsible for who lives or dies."

"And I have all the pieces to lose," Emma grumbled. "He's hiding behind a mask. There's nothing that I can take away from him."

"Just yourself," Athena responded absentmindedly.

Emma and Noah's heads whipped in her direction. She shrunk under their gazes, "I'm not saying Emma should  _off_  herself. I'm just saying that he's obsessed with her, she's the king pin of this whole game, so it proves that he has something to lose. He needs this game, no Emma, no game. But that also means there could be something else he could lose too."

"If we could figure out who he is, we could figure out what he has to lose," Noah answered. "Until then, he'll just keep upping the game. It's like this whole thing, you know, leading us here, it's like he wants you to think you have some power, and then he can just take it all away."

Emma frowned, "Sounds like you admire this guy or something."

Noah balked, "What? No! He's like this crazy, psycho loser, killer guy."

"If he wants me to find Will, why not just leave the door open?" Emma asked.

"Because it's a game," Athena answered. "He can't make it too easy or it's not fun for him."

But then they noticed a side door cracked open. Noah said, "Maybe he'd rather get right to the main course."

"Well, let's get on with it," Athena said, leading them inside the large building. She looked around, pulling out her flashlight, "We're in a bowling alley. Perfect."

"Whoa, that is the most mack daddy jaguar-and-space-shuttle mural I've ever seen," Noah gaped.

Brooke and Jake ran up to them, "Find anything?"

"Not yet," Emma sighed. "This place is big.

"We should split up finding Will," Jake said.

Noah gaped at him, "Said no one who survived a horror movie ever."

"Let's just go, Noah," Athena tugged on his arm. "Brooke, you and Jake stay together."

"This is dumb, but fine, don't listen," Noah grumbled.

"So quiet," Emma whispered, looking around.

Noah scoffed, "Yeah, until all the running and screaming starts." He jumped when he heard a small creaking noise, almost screaming, "Oh! Okay, I'm sorry, but all of this just screams bad idea."

"Look, you can still go if you wanna go," Emma told him.

"No," he denied. "This psycho took Riley from me. I can't just let him take Will from you. Even if he was kinda asking for it."

"Well, thanks for staying," Emma answered him.

There were a few moments of silence before Noah finally spoke again, "Hey, let me ask you something? Do you find Jake's story a little bit odd?"

"How so?" Emma asked.

"I mean, if Jake suspected Will was going to meet Maddox last night, don't you think he would've tried to stop him?"

"Because Jake is so responsible and caring with his friends," Athena responded sarcastically. "He threw Will under the bus with Brooke the first chance he got. He's not bright enough to be the killer."

"Playing the fool is a pretty great cover," Noah theorized. "And he was pretty eager to tromp into danger with the only people who know about what he did. And pack a whole lot of knives."

They hit a wall and Emma sighed, "We looked everywhere."

"Maybe Will's not here," Noah suggested.

"He's gotta be here," Emma insisted. "It's part of the game. I'm missing something."

"What exactly did your psycho say?" Noah asked.

"That this was hide and seek," Emma repeated.

"So, we go to the hiding places in a bowling alley," Athena realized outside.

"The unseen places. Like the guts, the place where you make it all work," Noah tacked on.

"Let's find out," Emma said, following Noah to the guts, which seemed to be an office of some sort. They pushed the door open to see a bloody, roughed up Will with tape on his mouth hanging from his bound wrists. Emma gasped, "Will!" and rushed forward. "Athena, cut him down, please!"

She took out her pocket knife, using Noah's hands as a boost to get up and cut through the tape around Will's wrists, trying to help Emma break his fall. They laid him on the floor, he was unconscious still. They took in his injuries, mumbling about how bad it looked. There was a stab wound in his abdomen, blood soaking his white shirt.

Emma whimpered, "Will! Will, wake up." She gently slapped his face, but he wasn't waking up.

A panting Brooke rushed into the room, slamming the door closed, "The killer is here. And Jake is still out there."

Emma started crying, "Oh, God. Will. Will! Come on. Come on, wake up!" She bunched her jacket under his head, begging him to wake up as Athena lifted his shirt to see how bad his wound as – it was pretty bad.

Noah's phone rang and he stood to answer it, "Audrey!" It didn't seem to be a good connection, but he tried to tell her where they were and that Will needed serious medical attention.

"Emma, do you know CPR?" Athena asked, kneeling on Will's other side.

Emma just helplessly cried and shook her head, "No, no, I don't."

"Okay, then back up," Athena ordered. "Give me room so I can help him."

Brooke took Emma into her arms to give Athena the space she needed. She slipped Emma's jacket from under his head and tilted his chin back, opening his mouth. She then intertwined her fingers and pressed them over his chest, counting to fifteen to herself as she pressed down with all her body weight. She then took a breath and pressed her mouth over his, breathing for him twice. Repeating the process twice before he finally gasped and opened his eyes.

Emma cried out as Athena was sitting him up and rushed to hug him. He easily accepted it, still gasping. Athena turned her attention back to his wound, catching Brooke and Noah's attention.

"Oh my god."

"That's a lot of blood," Noah stated.

"He'll need stitches but this'll have to do," Athena shrugged off her thin sweater and wrapped it around his torso above the wound, tying it as tightly as she possibly could. "I have a first aid kit in my car, but we have to get out there without getting killed."

"I'm gonna guard the door," Noah grumbled as Athena started pinching Will's skin together.

"Wait, Piper," Will grunted. "What happened to Piper?"

"She's okay," Emma assured him as Brooke joined Noah. "She's okay. She said that you saved her life."

"I'm so sorry," He told her. "I didn't want this."

"Try not to breath too fast or get worked up," Athena cut into their moment. "It makes your heart beat faster and makes you bleed faster. I think I have band-aids." She reached into her sweater pockets around him until she found a couple butterfly band-aids. "Better than nothing," she breathed as she started pinching his skin together and pressing a few of them on.

"Thanks," he grunted in pain.

"It's nothing," she answered.

"I don't understand," Will said. "Why didn't he just kill me?"

"Because he knew that I would come and find you," Emma guessed.

"No, Em, you shouldn't have," he said.

She frowned, "Look, I can't pretend that you didn't hurt me, because you did, but this is happening because of me. Not you."

He inhaled sharply and jolted, causing Emma to frown deeper, "What's wrong?"

He groaned, "My back."

Athena pushed him forward as Emma walked around to lift up his shirt, pulling the tail of her sweater up to see 'B4' crudely carved into his back. "Okay," Athena breathed. "Emma, you need to check out what that means. I'll keep an eye on him."

Emma went to do that as Athena leaned Will up against the wall. He jolted again in pain, "What is it?"

"He carved something in your back, another game for Emma," Athena told him. "You know, she really cares about you. Might even forgive you since you're on the brink of death and all. Just don't take advantage of it."

"What?" Will gasped, still in a bit of pain. "What are you talking about?"

"Let her be with Kieran," Athena shrugged. "Or be alone. If you want in her life, be her friend. Be there for her that way. She needs to figure herself out and you come with baggage – her baggage. It's better to be apart now so you both can heal and grow as people than to push yourselves together and just implode later. Like Emma's parents did."

Will was just sort of staring at her when music started playing throughout the bowling alley.

_Daisy, Daisy. Give me your answer, do._

"Cue creepy murder music," Noah stated. "I knew I was missing something."

_I am crazy. All for the love of you._

"Guys, this is gonna sound ridiculous," Emma warned, walking to the door, "but I'll be right back."

"Are you joking?" Brooke shrieked.

"Hey, seriously, Em, that's like, famous last words," Noah told her.

"No, Em," Will protested, leaning on Athena's shoulders. But Emma just opened the door and ran out. "Help me up," he asked her. "We need weapons."

"Way ahead of you," Noah said, brandishing a knife taped on a staff.

"Here," Athena said, handing her stun gun to Will. "Just don't use it unless you really have to. It has one good charge in it."

"What will you have?" Will gasped, still leaning heavily on her for support.

"I'm a badass," she smirked, pulling out her hunting knife.

The music cut out and almost as if it were planned, a pained howl sounded somewhere distantly. Brooke cried out, "Jake!"

"Help!" he shouted. "Where are you?"

"Jake needs our help!" Brooke said.

"Or he's luring us out, just like he did Emma," Noah suggested.

"Well, we can't wait," Will gasped out as he tried to stand. "I'll go out and find them. And you three need to find a way out, okay?"

"You can barely stand!" Noah pointed out. "But hey, if you wanna make it easier for him," he went over to the door and put his hand on the knob, "just be my guest!" He pulled it open, to reveal the masked killer behind it. Everyone screamed as Noah tried to slam it back closed. They all rushed to press their weight against the door as the killer got an arm through, with a knife.

"Brooke, go!" Will pushed her away, getting her to run off and get away.

"Noah, go!" Will listed of next, the other boy having no problem running off after Brooke.

"Athena, go," Will grunted in pain as they pressed the door against the barging killer.

"Nice try, pretty boy," Athena panted. "You can not hold him off on your own."

"You don't need to help me, I'm sure you hate me," he gasped out.

"I don't hate you," she assured him, trying to maneuver herself so she could get her taser out of her pocket. "You made some crummy mistakes. But I believe you did try to fix it. That counts for something." She finally got a hold of her taser and pulled it out, pressing the button on the side and pressing the charge to the killer's wrist. She heard a muffled cry from him as he pulled his arm roughly back out of the door.

"Okay, can you walk with me as a crutch?" Athena asked him, pocketing her taser and putting her shoulders under his arm. "If he left, he probably is going after the others. We gotta get out of here."

"I'm good, let's go," Will told her, letting her hold him up as they ran the way they saw Brooke and Noah go off to.

The made it to the bowling lanes, hearing Emma's scream. Athena gasped when she saw the masked killer running after her with a knife.

Before she could act, Will's weight was no longer on her shoulders and she saw him running and tackling the psycho to the ground. Before he could attack back, officers were swarming the building with flashlights, calling out Emma's name. The killer raced off out a door with a bang. Emma shouted, "In here! We're in here!"

Athena rushed over and grasped Emma's shoulder, "Are you okay?"

Emma nodded, "Yeah, yeah, I think so."

"The killer is still in here," Will said. "He's somewhere back there."

"Emma!" Kieran suddenly appeared, racing up to her. "Are you okay? Are you hurt?"

"No, I'm fine," she told him, seeming surprised to see him. "What are you doing here?"

"I was driving around. I heard the call on the police scanner," he explained. "I came as fast as I could."

"Help!" they heard Brooke's voice. "Jake's hurt!"

A paramedic ran in to Athena and Will, "Who is hurt?"

"He is," Athena held Will up. "He has a wound on his abdomen, I put butterfly band-aids on. He's been here for hours."

The paramedic nodded and took Will from her as another door slammed open. Some of the officers brandished their guns but it was just Noah, holding his hands up in surrender, "Hey, I'm friendly, I'm friendly. Come on, I found a quicker way out of this hell hole."

They all followed him out where a few cop cars and two ambulances were waiting. Noah called out for the others attention, "Hey! Over here!"

Audrey raced over and immediately hugged Noah. Jake was loaded in the back of an ambulance with Brooke by his side. Maggie helped the other paramedics assess Will's injuries and get him in the other ambulance. Emma stayed in Kieran's arms, still crying.

Athena just sat off to the side, arms wrapped around herself as the police asked her some questions.

Once they were through with her, Maggie approached her, "Will is asking to talk to you real quick before they head to the hospital."

"Really?" she asked, confused. But she complied anyway and climbed into the ambulance. "Hey. Maggie said you wanted to talk to me?"

"I figured I should return this," he laughed a bit, holding out her stun gun.

She sniggered, taking it from her, "Thanks. You think you're gonna pull through?"

"Yeah, I think I'll make it," he smiled. His smile fell a little into an expression of awe, "Thank you for all you did tonight. Helping me. Patching me up. The paramedics said you might've saved my life."

"Aw," she teased, "shucks, pretty boy, you're gonna make me blush."

"Seriously, thank you, Athena," Will repeated.

Athena quieted, taking after his serious tone, "It's nothing."


	8. Sick Revenge

While Sam had understood why Athena took a rain check on their talk, the next day he had work so they couldn't get together until a couple days later. She had to wait for her chance to talk things out with him. In the meantime, she was trying to focus on homework in her room, but all the words just seemed to blur into a big blob when she tried to concentrate.

She didn't even hear the doorbell ring until she heard Till's voice call out, "Athena! Emma is here for you."

The next second Emma was poking her head through the door, "Hey—I have a favor to ask."

"Another death defying adventure?" Athena teased, getting off her bed and putting her work away.

"No, uh..." Emma seemed a bit awkward and embarrassed.

"What is it, Emma?" she asked.

"Will called, invited me over to watch a movie, entertain him while he's on bed rest," Emma explained. "I said I'd go. Catch up with his mom. Hang out. And I was wondering if you'd come with me. I just don't want us to be alone."

"Do you think he's going to try something?" Athena asked.

Emma shook her head, "I just keep thinking about everything you've said to me – about believing that he really loved me but not forgetting that he hurt me, about exploring things with Kieran and moving towards the future instead of getting caught in the past. I want to."

"But Will makes you remember what it used to feel like with him," Athena finished for her compassionately. "It makes sense. But if you're this worried and trying to avoid anything getting rekindled with Will, don't you trust yourself to be just his friend?"

Emma looked to the floor, thinking, before shaking her head, "Not yet. Please, will you come with me? It at least sets a precedent for him that nothing is going to happen between us."

Athena sighed, "All right. Just for you."

Emma seemed relieved, hugging her, "Thank you." And so, Emma drove her to the convenience store to get candy and such before driving her out to Will's family farm. As they walked out her phone rang, flashing Will's name. Chewing on a jelly bean, she answered, "Hey – I just got here. I brought, um, really expensive candy for the full-on theatrical experience. I also brought Athena, I hope that's okay—Will, this isn't funny. Will?"

"Emma, what is it?" Athena asked, seeing the changing expression on Emma's face.

"What did we have to eat on our second date?" Emma asked the phone. Then as something changed, Emma's entire face fell into a glare, "No—I played by your rules. I did everything that you wanted. Where is he?"

"What's going on?" Athena rose her voice, insisting. She pressed her ear closer to the phone, finally hearing the garbled voice.

" _I wanted you to have a little pride,_ " the voice taunted. " _Instead, you forgave his lies, just like Daisy did all those years ago. I don't forgive so easily._ "

"What did you do to him?" Emma gasped.

" _Well, it's what you're gonna do that's the real bitch. I suggest you run._ "

Emma gasped again, dropping the bag of candy and running through the barn, Athena followed. The girls came to a halt when they got through the barn, seeing Will tied up to a chair with tape on his mouth, struggling against his bound hands. There was a large machine behind him, with sharp blades rotating just above his head. Emma gasped, "Will!"

 

She went to run forward to help him but Athena grabbed her arm and stopped her, "Emma! Stop, remember he said that it's what you're gonna do. He wanted you to run."

"What are you talking about?" Emma shrieked. "We have to get him out."

Will was trying to scream in his bounds, shaking his head vehemently.

"No," Athena insisted. "Remember what Noah said – he's trying to make the deaths your fault. All of them. Riley – he made you choose out of us. Will – he made you search for him. Now, he has to have another way to pin this on you somehow, just stop – don't move."

Athena looked over at the machine, seeing gears behind him with a string tied to one of them. She knew this was a trap. That was the killer's MO. She tried to follow the string but it disappeared under the grass. "Emma, stay here. Call the police. I'll figure this out."

Emma was crying and bringing her phone to her ear, rapidly talking to the Sheriff over the line, "Yeah, he—he went after Will again. We're at the Belmont farm, just get here please—please."

Athena took careful slow steps, dragging her feet in case it was a land mine kind of trap, but eventually she encountered a string parallel to the ground. She took a large step above it and felt safe enough to run to Will and bend down behind him, untying his hands. As he went to stand, she saw his head get close to the blades and yanked on his hand off to the side so he was away from the machine.

"Will!" Emma cried out as the boy ripped the tape from his mouth. She ran forward, tripping over the string. The blades of the machine went down, annihilating the chair into pieces.

Emma reached Will's side and gazes at the broken chair, "That would have killed you if I had kept running."

"It didn't," Will assured her, looking over at Athena. "I guess that's twice now that you've saved my life?"

"Who's counting, pretty boy?" Athena joked.

* * *

"Athena!" she heard Sam's voice yell while she was answering a cop's questions again. Before she had time to look for where his voice was coming from, his arms were around her. She heard Ian's voice call her name too, but Sam got to her first and was holding her.

"I'm fine," she assured him, her voice muffled in his shoulder.

"What the Hell happened?" Ian asked, flapping his arms around neurotically. "I mean—this guy couldn't wait 24 hours before going after you again?"

"He didn't go after me, he went after Will," she explained.

"And she saved his life," the Sheriff walked over to them, taking Athena's shoulder in his hand. "You did good."

"Sorry, I didn't wait for you guys to get here, I didn't want to risk the thing going down on it's own," Athena apologized sheepishly.

But the Sheriff shook his head, "No, you did the right thing, you thought it through and acted and Will is alive because of it. You should be proud."

"Agreed," Sam squeezed her closer, kissing the top of her head.

"Can we get her home?" Ian asked, standing on her other side.

"Sure, sure," the Sheriff nodded. "Rest up."

"I wanna say goodbye to Emma and Will," she told the boys after the Sheriff left. "I'll meet you at the car."

Sam nodded and pulled Ian to the car while Athena walked over to the ambulance, stepping in to see Emma taking to Will quietly. She was saying, "I will be there for you – as your friend."

"I'm glad," Will was saying.

Athena cleared her throat, calling their attention, "Sam and Ian are here to take me home."

"Thank you so much for everything," Emma said, standing up to hug her. "I don't know what would have happened if he had died because of me."

"It wouldn't have been your fault, Emma," Athena insisted. "This sicko is just gonna keep playing games and targeting people until we stop him. Today – we got a win. Let's just focus on that."

Emma swallowed and nodded, "You're right."

* * *

"Why are you complaining?" Ian asked Athena as she busied herself tidying up her room. "They're throwing you a hero's dinner. You haven't even spoken to mom and dad since you found out that mom knew Gretchen."

"For good reason," Athena snorted. "And I don't need a hero's dinner, I don't need celebrating. I didn't do anything that anyone else wouldn't have done."

"You saved that kid's life twice in a row," Ian stressed. "That deserves some recognition."

"I don't want any," she insisted. "I don't. I want to relax, I want all this craziness to be over. I want to go back to the simple life I had – even if there were problems in this house, at least nobody died. Don't make me drop kick you."

"Do you need to talk about what happened?" Ian asked, sitting on the bed. "At that abandoned hospital, or abandoned bowling alley, or any other abandoned places you've been attacked at lately."

"No," she answered instantly. "I don't. Nobody died this time around, and I don't want to jinx anything. Just – just go tell them I'm not hungry. I can't just sit at a table and eat like nothing's going on. I need more time and space than that."

Ian huffed, obviously still miffed, but stood up and complied, "Fine. Sulk up here alone. Come to me when you want to talk." He let himself out of the room without another word.

Athena sighed, knowing she'd annoyed him but she couldn't bring herself to do anything about it at the moment. Instead she focused on folding her laundry and setting them in piles on her bed. Her phone rang, and she saw Unknown on her screen. She felt some wariness considering recent events but she wasn't the kingpin – Emma was. So, she swiped the green button and answered, "Hello?"

" _You just couldn't help yourself, could you?_ " a deep techno, gravely voice answered her, chilling her bones. " _You little, meddlesome bitch. You ruined everything!_ "

"I think I'm okay with that," she answered, trying to keep the false bravado in her voice.

" _Sure, you are. For now. But remember, I don't forgive,_ " he warned, the call cutting off with an audible click.

Athena felt like she could hyperventilate and pass out, just staring at her phone. After a moment she forced herself to toss it on the bed and sit down, trying to calm herself. She didn't understand. What did he mean? What would he do? She didn't think she could handle more of his killing tendencies.

* * *

"What are you talking about?" Sam asked, walking into the house as Athena let him in.

"The killer called me, basically promising to get me back for saving Will," she explained, getting worked up. "I don't know what he's going to do. He said I ruined everything."

"And that's why you text me to leave you alone?" Sam asked a bit incredulously, putting his phone away.

"You need to stay away," Athena insisted, keeping her distance from him in the front of the house. "I mean, he went after Will just because Emma forgave him. What do you think he's going to do to get back at me for ruining his plans?"

"I don't know but I'm not Will," Sam said, trying to step closer to her. "I can take care of myself."

"How do we even know that this guy's alone?" Athena posed for him. "You can get ganged up on and mutilated just because someone saw us together or something."

"I don't think not seeing each other after the fact is going to do anything to protect me," Sam pointed out. "If the sicko knows, he still knows and can still act no matter what we do now."

"I've made up my mind," Athena said. "It's my choice to make and it's made."

"I don't have to agree with it," Sam said. "I like you. I want to be with you. I want to help you – with all that's going on. I'm tired to skipping around and getting distracted instead of talking about whatever this is between us. We should just do this, be real, and not let this psycho run our lives because that's exactly what he wants!"

"I'm sorry, I can't do it!" Athena shouted. "Just go home, Sam. Whatever this is – or was – it isn't anymore. It can't be. Not until this psycho is gone." Before he could get another word in, she ran upstairs to her room and slammed the door.

* * *

Athena was ready to pull her hair, just waiting. The whole group was pretty much told to stay home for a few days from school. But she was just waiting for something to happen – for this guy to make his move somehow. She couldn't stand waiting. She couldn't stand sitting around and 'healing' when this guy was plotting and putting some kind of horrible death trap together for her or someone she cared about. It was nauseating.

So, she nearly pissed herself when there was a knock at her door. She wondered who it was – Sam, Ian, Emma, maybe even Diana. But no, it was Lana. She felt a little guilty as she said, "Hey," when she saw her little sister. She had not really spent any time with her, didn't know her at all. "Is it time for dinner?"

"No," the girl answered timidly, "I don't think mom is cooking tonight. I don't know."

"Did you want to ask me something?" she asked a bit knowingly. She wondered when someone in the family would come around asking questions about what had happened.

She just wasn't expecting Lana's actual question being, "Do you like boys or do you like girls?"

Athena did a double take, "What? Um, well, both. Why?"

The younger girl shrugged, "I hear Ian and you talking sometimes—and Sam. You were dating a girl. Now, Sam wants to date you. Is that normal? To like both?"

"I don't think there's such a thing as normal," Athena tried to explain. She gestured to her bed, "Do you want to sit down?"

The girl shyly nodded and sat at the foot of the bed, "How do you know what is okay?"

"Lana, are you trying to ask me if it's okay for you to like girls?" Athena asked gently as she could.

The girl blushed, looking down at her hands, "It's just... no one else does, at least at my school. But you do and you seem fine with it."

"Because I am, it's who I am," Athena explained. "Society may try to tell you that there's only one way of doing these kinds of things – boy and girl. But that's not true. Girls can be with girls and boys can be with boys. At the end of the day, you fall for who you fall for and that shouldn't be stamped out by whatever is considered normal. You don't have to be embarrassed or ashamed."

"I like one of my friends at school, her name is Ashley," Lana told her. "I think she's pretty and smart and sometimes I want to hold her hand."

"I think that sounds sweet," Athena put an arm around her and smiled. "Do you want to tell her?"

Lana shook her head rapidly, "I don't think she's like me—I mean, I don't think that she likes girls. I don't want her to stop being my friend."

"Sweetie, if she has a problem with who you are then she's not your real friend," Athena assured her. Then she got an idea that may help both of them get their minds off of everything. "Hey, why don't I go out and get take out for dinner and we just veg out in here with movies and junk food tonight? We can talk through everything."

Lana had a sweet smile on her face, "Really? We could, like, spend some time together?"

"Of course," Athena felt worse for not making an effort to really seek out Lana. "What do you want to eat, I'll go pick it up?"

"I like the burgers at Burger Palace, I think they have good veggie burgers too," she answered.

"All right, then I'll head out and get the food, you pick a movie," Athena said. "I'll be back soon."

Athena had been waiting for the takeout order patiently for fifteen minutes, smiling as she accepted the food and walked out to her car. But as she got into the driver's seat and put the food down next to her, she started her car and checked her rear view mirror and saw the Brandon James mask. She didn't have the chance to scream loud enough before something covered her mouth and everything went black.

* * *

Athena felt a pulsing pain in her head as her vision started to get less blurry. She blinked a few times as she heard someone calling her name, "Athena! Wake up, please. Tell me you're okay!"

"Sam?" she asked, groaning as she tried to move. But she couldn't. She tugged but her hands were tied. She tried to move her legs but they were tied down to something too. Her vision was finally clear enough to see that she was strapped down to a chair. She looked around and noticed that she was back in that damned bowling alley. In front of her were the bowling lanes, but two people were bound to chairs just like she was.

She heard Sam's voice again, "Yes, it's me. Talk to me, sweetheart, are you hurt?"

"My head hurts," she answered softly before she could finally make out the sniffling person in the lane next to Sam. "Oh my god—Elena!"

"What the hell is going on?" Elena cried.

"I don't know," Athena whimpered. "I'm so sorry."

The killer's voice came over the speakers, " _I don't forgive, bitch. It's your turn to choose who lives and who dies. It's time I paid more attention to you anyway, right?_ "

"No! You're crazy!" Athena shouted to the ceiling. "I'm not doing this! I'm not choosing anything!"

" _You will,_ " the voice warned. " _Choose which one lives and which one dies tonight. Who will it be, Jules? Will it be poor confused Elena? The girl who is ashamed of you and your relationship because you're both girls. Or will it be Sam? Your knight in shining armor, always there for you, but always pushing you to accept the family that rejects who you really are. Choose. Tick tock, Jules._ "

"My name isn't Jules!" she screamed, tears already making their way down her face. "I'm not doing this! I won't choose!"

"Athena, what's going to happen?" Elena sobbed. "I don't want to die."

"You won't," Sam said, his voice eerily calm. He stared at Athena, "Athena, it's okay. Choose her, okay?"

She shook her head, scrunching her eyes tightly shut. "I can't choose. I won't."

"It's okay," Sam said. "I'm telling you that it's okay."

" _How sweet,_ " that chilling voice said before there was an audible click of the system turning off.

Athena opened her eyes when she heard Elena scream. She screamed as well when she saw the killer, mask and all, walking around Elena. He then roughly grabbed her hair, crudely slapping duct tape onto her mouth. The killer then crossed to the next lane next to Sam. He struggled in his bonds, shouting, "Athena, baby, it's okay. None of this is your fault, do what you have to do. I lo-" the killer taped his mouth and pulled out a large blade. Sam continued to struggle but his chair was nailed to the bowling lane.

"I'm not doing this!" Athena shouted again as the killer pressed the flat of the blade to Sam's cheek. She could hear Sam trying to shout from under his tape but she couldn't tell what he was trying to tell her. Elena was still sobbing, her face completely dirtied with her makeup. She was looking down in her lap, scared to death. Athena could even see tears in Sam's eyes.

The killer tilted the knife against Sam's neck, pressing the sharp blade lightly to his skin. Athena's heart stopped as she lurched forward in her bound seat and shouted instinctively, "No, don't hurt him!"

The killer paused, cocking his head, and abruptly pulled the knife away from Sam's neck. He gave a half bow and briskly walked over to Elena.

"No, no, no!" Athena shouted. "Stop! Don't hurt her either! Just stop this—kill me!"

But he didn't listen to her. Without hesitation he grabbed Elena's hair and pulled her head back, pressing the knife to her throat and slicing deeply in one clean swipe. Athena screamed out, no words, just a long wail of pain. The killer gave her another bow and ran out the back entrance.

Athena screamed until her throat was raw. She only vaguely noticed Sam still struggling to get out of his chair. She knew that they were there for a while, but she didn't know if it was one hour or twelve. Before she finally heard voices calling her name, "Athena Tyler! Athena Tyler, are you in here?"

She felt numb, she felt hopeless. She couldn't even open her mouth to answer them. But they swarmed into the place. She felt someone untie her and ask her if she was injured, but she couldn't bring herself to say anything back. She heard Sam's voice try to comfort her and felt his arms around her as he led her out of the bowling alley. She was deposited into the back of an ambulance as someone flashed a light in her eyes, but she didn't react. She saw them wheeling Elena's body covered in a sheet past her, but still she didn't speak.

She almost didn't realize it when Emma appeared in front of her, "Oh my god, Athena, are you okay?"

"How did you find us here?" Sam asked from his seat next to her.

Emma addressed him, "Lana got worried when she didn't come home for over an hour. Diana asked my mom and I if we'd seen or heard from her. Then the killer called me, told me he had at least gotten his revenge against one of us and that Athena had paid her dues and I should pick her up at the bowling alley. So, I called the Sheriff."

"Thank you," Sam said genuinely.

"Of course, I'm just sorry that we couldn't get here before..." Emma trailed off. She leaned forward and hugged Athena, "I'm so sorry, I can't imagine what you're going through right now. It's not your fault."

"He made me choose," Athena croaked, her throat burning from the use. It was the first thing she'd said in a while. She still looked aimlessly off from Emma and Sam as she spoke. "He made me choose. He made her death my fault. It's what he does. He brought me into the game."

"He is the one responsible for this," Emma swore. "Not you. Okay?"

"He is responsible," Athena muttered, glaring hatefully off to nowhere. "And I'm gonna find him. And I'm gonna kill him."


	9. Psychosis

Now, it had been insisted that Athena take time out from school. Diana and Till had tried to talk to her. But only Ian had convinced her to see a professional about what had happened. He didn't help her too much, just prescribed her some anti-depressants. She took them if only to get a good night's sleep without nightmares plaguing her.

Eventually, she'd had it with staying cooped up in her room and having Diana check in on her with soup or ice cream every half hour. She got up, got dressed, packed her backpack and went downstairs to grab a banana or an apple for breakfast.

"Athena?" Diana's startled voice called her attention.

"G'morning," she mumbled, dropping the banana in her backpack.

"Are you... are you going to school?" Diana asked, still gaping.

"Yes," Athena answered. "And I don't want to argue about it. Holing myself up in my room won't change what happened and it probably only makes this psycho happier that he got to me. So, yes, I'm going to school. I'll see you later."

* * *

She successfully walked into the school without running into anyone that wanted to question her. But she could feel their stares as she walked into Mr. Branson's class.

"Intolerance. Deception. Hysteria," he listed off. "These are all central themes to The Crucible. See, hysteria causes..."

She could admit she wasn't paying full attention. All she could do was stare at the empty seat near her where Elena would have sat. She could only feel regret. She regret that she ever paired up with Elena. That she ever kissed her. That she didn't completely cut her out when she had the chance. If she had, Elena never would have been in that bowling alley.

"Noah, Audrey," Branson's voice startled her out of her reverie. "Would either of you like to discuss the parallels between The Crucible and McCarthyism?"

Noah took the liberty, speaking in double-talk, "Well, I'm no fan of McCarthy's blacklist, but sometimes the guy next door  _is_  worshiping the devil. Like Richard Ramirez."

Branson deliberated and then nodded, "Noah is right, of course. There are exceptions to the rule... However, the themes of trust and tolerance still resonate."

After class let out, Emma came over to her, following her to her locker, "Athena, hi, I didn't know you were coming back yet."

"I didn't want to fall too far behind in school," she responded numbly, opening her locker.

"I'm sure that the school would have worked with you," Emma assured her. "Everyone understands if you need time away."

"I don't," she snapped. "I just need everyone not to treat me like I'm made of glass, like I'm about to explode. That's why I hid the whole kidnapping thing from the rest of the town when I first moved here. I don't want to be-"

"The center of attention," Emma finished knowingly. "I understand, Athena."

"Out of everyone else you're probably the only one," Athena answered her with a little more feeling.

"Hey, do you want me to come home with you today?" Emma offered. "I have time before work and I can help you catch up on what you've missed so far. It's not a lot so it won't take long."

"Sure," Athena shrugged. "Um, did you drive?"

"Yeah," Emma nodded. "I'll meet you at our houses after school, okay?"

"Okay," she agreed, closing her locker and heading to her next class.

* * *

Emma had beat her home and parked her car before Athena pulled up in hers. She tried to smile, she really did. But she felt that any time she flexed her facial muscles that she only looked angry. She unlocked the front door to let her and Emma in and dropped her keys in the bowl. The girls were going to go straight upstairs, but Diana's voice called out, "Athena? Honey, is that you?"

Athena was briefly confused – who else could it be? – but she answered anyway, "Yeah. Emma's with me."

"Sweetie, could you come in the kitchen for a bit?" Till's voice sounded this time.

Athena and Till shared a look before walking around the hallway into the kitchen. Till and Diana were standing stiffly next to each other with mugs of coffee in their hands, standing opposite a dark haired woman sitting on one of the stools. She looked eerily like the high school photo of Gretchen Athena had found at the hospital. But she knew who this woman was. She gasped, dropping her bag limply to the floor as she stared at the woman, "Aunt Abby?"

The woman swiveled in her stool and stood up, nodding, "Hi sweetie."

Overwhelmed with emotion, Athena rushed forward to hug her Aunt tightly, choking on her tears. "I thought I wouldn't ever see you again. I miss you so much."

"I know, I know, sweetie," Abby kissed her head over and over, whispering. "But I'm here now."

"How?" Athena asked, still shocked. She pulled back, but firmly kept her Aunt in arms length in case she disappeared. "I thought the police weren't sure whether or not you were involved."

"Alonzo finally did something right," Abby told her a bit bitterly. "He signed his confession, stating that no one outside of himself and Gretchen knew that you were the Tyler's child and not legally adopted. With all the charges cleared in my name, I was able to come to town and see how you were doing. I was just talking to your parents here, assuring them that I really don't want to take you away from them. That I just want to be a part of your life."

"I want that too," Athena whimpered, still feeling overwhelmed. She tried to pull herself back, wiping under her eyes and turning to Emma. "Um, this is my friend Emma from school. Emma, this is my Aunt Abigail. Gretchen's younger sister."

"Oh wow," Emma gaped, a little thrown. "Nice to meet you." She shook Abby's hand and turned to Athena, "You know what? We can study anytime. I should go talk to my mom before I leave for work. You should hang out with your Aunt."

"Thank you, Emma," Athena hugged the girl and walked her out.

"Sweetheart, we need to talk about how this is going to work," Diana cut off the happy reunion. "Your father and I are not sure how comfortable we are with you having a relationship with Gretchen's sister."

"I don't care," Athena told her, straight faced. "Honestly, you don't get a say in the matter. No matter what happened, or how it did, Abby is my Aunt – my family. And she's not going anywhere just because you say so."

Diana and Till shared a look, and maybe they realized that they weren't going to get any brownie points by depriving Athena of a healthy filial relationship. So, they nodded, "All right. Abby, would you like to stay for dinner?"

"I would love to, thank you so much," Abby accepted graciously. "If you're okay with it, maybe Athena can show me around? I haven't been here since High School."

"Of course," Till answered dutifully before Diana. "Just be back in time for dinner."

"Of course."

* * *

Walking around town had provided Athena with the opportunity to catch her Aunt up with what was going on in town. Abby had read the news about the murders, but didn't realize how close they had gotten to her niece. "Sweetheart, I am so sorry. You know it's not your fault, right?"

Athena looked away in the coffee shop, seeing Emma wiping down a table. "I know it. I just don't feel it."

"I understand," Abby sighed. "When the police arrested Alonzo, I still felt responsible for the pain he caused the Tylers. I felt that I should have noticed how abrupt the adoption was. I just always told myself that Gretchen was telling me the truth when they explained that they hid the adoption from the family to avoid getting their hopes up. I should have known."

"It's not like me not looking like them would have tipped you off," Athena shook her head. "And it's not like I had a horrible life. I think that's the hardest part. It would be easier for me to embrace life with the Tylers if mom and—I mean, if Alonzo and Gretchen had been abusive or neglectful or something, I could have left easier. But no, they were picture perfect parents. Mom was my warrior and dad was my protector. We were all best friends."

"I know," Abby breathed, taking her hand. "Maybe it's okay to remember that part of them. That they loved you and were always on your side and there for you. I just hope that your life with the Tylers can be just as good."

"I don't know about that," Athena muttered. "I get along with Ian and Lana. But Diana never told me that she knew Gretchen. They were in the same class and when everything came out of course she knew. But she never said anything. I had to find out from this sicko running around killing people. And since that came out, she hasn't said a word."

"It's probably not something she's proud of," Abby theorized. "She probably feels like she should have known about Gretchen when you first disappeared. I know that Diana has to make the first move in mending the bridge between you too. But I think that you need to be willing – when she does come around, okay?"

Athena let her eyes drift off her Aunt, catching sight of a girl standing by the door. Her heart stopped when she saw Elena. She had dead eyes, her throat raw and bloody and exposed. She glared at Athena, standing there. She lifted her hand up, dragging her thumb across her slit throat.

"Athena!" Abby's shouting voice called her attention. She turned her head to see her Aunt staring at her wide eyed with Emma next to her, both looking concerned. "What was that?"

Athena shook her head, "No—nothing. I'm fine."

* * *

Athena felt like a skittish animal the next day. Everyone was staring at her, and she just felt tired. She couldn't calm down enough to sleep after seeing Elena at the coffee shop. Emma had texted her a few times to check in on her, and even the deputy on her detail had offered to talk if she needed. But she didn't want to talk, she just wanted to erase everything that had happened. But she did let herself talk to her Aunt, at least after dinner. She was staying in a hotel in town for as long as she needed, and if it looked like things were going well with the Tylers, she'd find a place to live in town.

The next day she just went through the motions again, went to school ready for the day. People still stared at her and she heard some of the whispers, both about what happened to Elena and their sordid lesbian affair that no one had known about before the killer pounced on it. She felt like she wanted to punch someone in the face or break down in the bathroom. But she did neither. She kept her face blank. During English, Branson let them do their scene work instead. Of course, Athena didn't have a partner anymore. Noah had become a trio with Audrey and Will and Athena asked Branson if she could sit the project out. He allowed it, understanding her – hopefully.

She just sat in the library, looking at a photo of Elena on her phone. Until she heard someone say her name and turned to see Noah, Audrey and Emma approaching her. They sat across from her and next to her. Audrey was the first one to ask a question, "So, Emma said your Aunt showed up?"

"Yeah," Athena nodded. "I'm glad – I missed her. It'll be good to have her around."

"Especially with everything going on," Noah agreed, earning a smack in the chest from Audrey.

He gave her a look but she just scoffed and looked back to Athena, "Did you hear that they brought Mayor Maddox in?"

She nodded, Diana having told her over dinner, "Right, like he could have done it."

"It's definitely suspicious," Noah shrugged. "But thin."

"I find it hard to believe that the Mayor was the one chasing us around that bowling alley," Emma agreed. "But somehow we'll find the guy who did this. Athena, you said so yourself, he's going to make a mistake and get caught."

"If the police don't get him, I will and he won't make it alive to trial," Athena glowered, getting up and grabbing her things. "I need to go to the bathroom before the next class. I'll see you guys later."

They didn't say anything, letting her walk away. She dropped her back on the counter in the bathroom, trying to take deep breaths and calm herself down. She ran the sink, leaning down to splash cold water on her face. She took another deep breath, "You can't let him have this kind of power over you. It was not your fault."

But when she looked up, she saw Elena's face in the mirror. She gasped in fear, her hand holding her chest and erratically beating heart. Elena gave her the dead eyes, but the rest of her face was scared and angry. She opened her mouth in a scream but no sound came out. She kept screaming, her mouth forming words but Athena couldn't tell what she was trying to say. Athena whimpered at the pain in Elena's face, "What do you want from me? Why won't you leave me alone?"

Elena stopped screaming, instead looking angry, and finally spoke out loud in nothing more than a whisper, "You killed me."

"No, I didn't!" Athena shouted, lifting her fist to point it at the mirror. "Go away!" she cried as she smashed her fist into the glass.

She barely felt the pain until after the moment was over. She fell over on the floor, the sink still running, clutching her ripping up fist in her lap.

"Athena?" Emma's voice filtered into her ears. She and Audrey walked into the bathroom and gasped at the sight before them. "Oh my god, Athena!" Emma cried, kneeling by her and taking in her hand. "What did you do to yourself?"

"I'm calling an ambulance," Audrey stated, noticing the blood pouring out of the cuts.

Athena didn't hear what they said after that, just muttering to herself, "I didn't do it..."

* * *

"You'll be relieved to know that nothing is broken," Athena's doctor announced. She laid out in a hospital bed with a worried Diana, Abby, Emma and Audrey surrounding her.

"How bad is it?" Diana demanded.

"Three knuckles are fractured," he explained, pointing them out in her x-rays. "And there were severe lacerations to the skin. Fortunately the blood loss was the worst of it and we were able to give her a transfusion. She won't need a cast or anything. We'll just keep her hand bound and give her painkillers."

"What about what caused it?" Abby cut in. "The hallucinations?"

"That is the more worrying part," the doctor admitted. "I would definitely suggest consulting your psychologist for long term solutions and options but I would also like Athena to stay overnight at least tonight. She's exhausted. She needs some rest."

"Agreed," Diana said stiffly, reaching to brush some of Athena's hair out of her face. "Would you like me to stay with you tonight?"

Athena shook her head, "No, I'll be fine. You should tell the others that I'm alive and all."

Diana nodded, "Okay, sweetie, well – I'll be back to check on you first thing in the morning and see if we can bring you home."

"Sounds good," she nodded. "I appreciate it," she added after remembering what Abby said about meeting Diana somewhere in the middle.

"I'll be back tomorrow sweetie," Diana said once more and kissed her forehead before walking out. Abby gave her the same sort of sentiments before walking out too.

Emma and Audrey hovered. Audrey looked reluctant to leave, "Are you sure you don't want someone to stay with you?"

"Yeah, we could stream movies on my lap top," Emma offered. "Or play cards."

"And talk about our feelings," Audrey quipped.

"I will drop kick both of you," Athena deadpanned. "Guys, I will be fine. I just want to rest."

"That's probably for the best," Emma replied. "We'll check on you tomorrow."

"Okay," Athena sighed. "Thanks for... you know."

"Yeah," Audrey supplied. "No problem. We'll see you later."

Emma and Audrey left quietly and Athena didn't even look away from her lap. She wanted to sleep, she wanted to rest. But whenever she blinked, she saw Elena's face in the darkness. She didn't know how she was ever going to go to sleep again.

* * *

Athena had been trying and failing to keep her breathing deep and steady enough to sleep – though the painkillers helped – for about a half hour before she heard someone say her name at the door. When she looked, she saw one of the last people she expected standing in the doorway in a hospital gown, leaning on a silver pole with a bag of fluids hanging from it.

"Pretty boy?"

He smiled a bit reluctantly, "Yeah, Emma stopped by and told me you were here."

"I didn't know that you were here," was all she could think of to answer.

"Yeah, my mom kind of insisted I recover on bed rest here," Will gave a nervous laugh. "Harder to get to me here, I guess."

"I think it's been proven that he can get to us anywhere," Athena quipped, using her good arm to push herself up into a sitting position. "But it's probably harder in a hospital crawling with nurses and cops."

"Her thoughts exactly," Will agreed, walking over until he was next to her bed. "Emma also told me what happened. I really don't know what to say."

"Just don't say you're sorry," Athena groaned. "That's about the worst thing in the world to hear."

"I thought so," he allowed. "I do want to say it, though, because it only happened because you saved me. It was supposed to be me that died."

Athena's jaw clenched as she tried to keep her expression blank, "It's not your fault that I went and pissed off a serial killer."

"But it was saving my life that pissed him off," Will retorted without missing a beat.

"I wouldn't have let you die, had I known," Athena replied, surprised that she actually meant it. "It probably wouldn't have mattered in the long run. This guy has been playing with me since I got here, it was a matter of time before he came at me directly."

"What do you mean?" Will asked, completely out of the loop.

Athena sighed, "I forgot—you don't know."

"Don't know what?" Will asked, not unkindly.

"The only people outside the Tyler family that know about this is Noah, Audrey and Emma," Athena warned him. "I don't want you telling anyone."

"If you don't want to tell me, you don't have to," Will assured her. "I'm not here to be the same jackass I was before. And I owe you my life – twice over. I won't tell anyone what you tell me."

Athena considered him, his face not wavering. He was telling her the truth. So, she readied herself before explaining, "Remember the day Nina was found? When I started at school and Mr. Branson called me Jules Tyler?"

Will thought on it before giving a small shrug, "Kind of. I was a bit more wrapped up in Emma and Nina's murder."

"Well, after that, I got a note asking if it was Jules or Athena, and I've gotten a few little notes like that. He wants to find out my secret and use it against me somehow," she could feel herself getting a bit agitated at the memory of it. "And I guess it just escalated from there until what happened – happened."

"Can I ask about the secret?" he requested quietly.

Athena tried to get comfortable in her hospital bed, putting off the real story, "Shouldn't you be sitting down or something?"

"I've been cooped up in my own bed for days," Will complained lightly. "I'm fine standing for a few more minutes."

"At least lean against the bed," Athena offered, scooting her legs over. At another encouraging head gesture, Will complied and sat at the edge of her bed, feet still on the floor. She accepted this and folded her hands in her lap – injured over uninjured. "My birth name  _is_  Jules Tyler. Diana and Till aren't my foster parents, they're my biological parents. Only, for most of my life, I believed that a couple named Alonzo and Gretchen Contos were my adoptive parents. I lived with them in Oregon until I started applying for jobs. The police picked me up because my social security number was fake. Because Alonzo and Gretchen kidnapped me from a park when I was three years old."

Will was gaping at her in shock, not knowing what to say at all. Out of everything he'd learned and everything going on – including the scam he was involved in with Jake – he was not expecting this story on top of it. "Wow."

"I know," Athena sighed. "Alonzo was arrested. Gretchen went on the run. And I was brought here to live with the Tylers. It hasn't exactly been smooth sailing. And yesterday, Gretchen's sister Abigail – my Aunt – came to town. No one outside of my 'parents' knew that I wasn't legally adopted. So, charges were dropped against her and she was allowed to be near me."

"Do you know if he knows?" Will asked. "The way you explained it, it sounds like you just had him curious."

"I don't know if he knows yet," Athena shook her head. "I wouldn't be surprised if he did and is just letting me drive myself insane wondering."

"Yeah," Will nodded, looking off pensively. "Thing is – I think he's just picking up steam. Going after me, going at you. Who's next?"

"I don't know," she whispered, looking down at her lap. She felt tears building in her eyes as she looked back up. "Just don't ever go unprotected, Will. Okay? Just because he failed to get you the first time around doesn't mean he's not going to try again. He wanted you out of the way for a reason and I just fucked it up for him."

"I've got my personal body guards," Will assured her, putting a hand on her shoulder. "And my mom is working with the Sheriff to set up a safe house closer to town so I'm not easy to get to at the farm. I'm going to be okay."

"He got to Riley in a police station full of cops, he can get to you anywhere," she snapped a bit harshly. "I just..." Athena felt embarrassment as the tears bubbled over and she choked while they fell. She tried to wipe and blink them away but it wasn't working. Her throat felt painfully tight and she couldn't get the words she wanted out. She could only sob.

Will carefully shifted down the bed and took her in his arms, letting her head fall between his shoulder and his neck, "Don't cry. I'm alive because of you. I'm not going anywhere. And hopefully this guy gets caught before he kills anyone else."

Athena let herself cry for a little while longer, she had no idea how long, before she sniffed and composed herself enough to stop. But she still lay nestled in the crook of his neck, being comforted b someone she wasn't responsible for losing or getting killed. "I don't understand. I don't get it. What does he want?"

"I don't know," Will answered honestly. "And I don't care. All I care about is that he gets what's coming to him before anyone else gets hurt. So, we can all move on."

She snorted, "Yeah right, it's going to take like years of therapy to move on from this."

He laughed with her as she pulled away to look at him, "Probably. But we will survive this."

Athena cocked her head to the side, taking him in, "I hope one day I can believe you, Pretty boy."

He chuckled, "Do you think you'll ever not call me Pretty boy?"

She laughed and shook her head, "Not until I think of a better nick name."

"Fair enough," he smirked kindly.


	10. Beginning of the End

Athena was shocked to hear about what had been revealed while she was in the hospital. Emma found out that her mother had a lovechild with Brandon James when she was 16 years old and that it could possibly be Seth Branson – the English teacher. She caught Athena up on what Noah and Audrey found out—that his name used to be Seth Palmer, but his young girlfriend had been murdered and he disappeared and changed his name. The cops had gone to arrest him after Audrey and Noah found a bloody knife in his classroom, and found him with an assaulted Brooke in the school's Performing Arts Center.

" _Hey, guys. It's Piper Shaw, with a special Halloween podcast of Autopsy of a Crime. So, in looking for a connection between the Lakewood murders past and present, I had to wonder about Brandon's mask. Turns out, it disappeared from county evidence last year, but was never reported. If I were Sheriff Hudson, I'd be looking into the chief suspect's whereabouts around the time the mask went missing. But even then, what's Seth Branson's, or rather Seth Palmer's, connection to Brandon James? Why become the monster behind the mask?"_

Athena pulled out her ear buds from the backseat of Emma's car and decided to at least try to be a part of her conversation with Brooke. Emma had volunteered to take them both home from the hospital since Brooke had a big slice on her arm and didn't need to stay overnight and Diana had been called away to Lana's school for a conference with her teacher.

"I'm just really glad that you're okay," Emma was saying. "You must've been terrified."

"I was," Brooke drawled. "I can't believe that Seth could do any of those things."

"Brooke, he's not who we thought he was," Emma pointed out. "He is literally a different person."

"But that doesn't make everything about him a lie," she weakly replied.

"Sort of does," Athena finally contributed. "He lied about everything about him – including his ex girlfriend being murdered."

Emma sighed, "Why didn't you ever tell me?"

Brooke scoffed, "Because I knew you would get all judgey."

"Brooke, I am  _not_  judging you," Emma insisted. "After everything we've been through, I just want to make sure that you're actually seeing this clearly."

"Are you?" Brooke shot back. "'Cause after this guy went after Will, it seems like you just need to hold someone accountable."

"I do," Emma admitted. "But this isn't about me, this is about all of us."

"Why do I feel so alone?" Brooke asked, looking out the window.

"Brooke, you're not," Emma swore.

"My mom's in rehab, my dad's in prison, my ex... whatever-he-is is being held for murder," she sighed. "And now I have to stay at Jake's house with him and Will."

"You know, if they drive you crazy, you can always come and stay with me," Emma offered with a light smile.

Brooke chuckled, "I might actually hold you to that."

Emma dropped Brooke off at Jake's house and Athena jumped into the passenger's seat. They drove through Starbucks and Athena went with her to the Sheriff's station to stop in on her mother and figure out what was going on with Seth. They walked into the ME's office to see Maggie working on her computer. She looked up and smiled, "Hey! Athena, how are you feeling?"

"A bit of a twinge here and there," Athena shrugged. "I'm just glad I'm some sort of anomaly that throws a punch with her left hand."

Maggie smiled kindly, "You're able to flex without too much discomfort?"

Athena playfully narrowed her eyes and flexed her hand for demonstration, "I thought you worked on the dead?"

The older woman chuckled, "I still have a working knowledge of the living."

"Mom, I told her about who we think Seth really is," Emma cut in carefully. "Considering everything we know about her, we can trust her."

Maggie seemed shocked, "You know about Athena... about what happened?"

"I told her," Athena offered helpfully. "When we were at that hospital, we found the photo of Gretchen in High School. And the killer had been sending me presents too."

"Why didn't you tell any of us?" Maggie asked sternly. "This is important."

"I did, after the bowling alley," Athena dissuaded her. "I told the Sheriff and asked him to keep it under wraps. The point is, you can speak frankly in front of me."

Maggie sighed, "All right. I've ordered a DNA panel on Seth Branson... and a maternity test for me. But the results will take a few days."

"Mom, I need to talk to Branson," Emma blurted out.

Her mother instantly denied her, "No, we need to let Clark do his job."

"I can't wait," Emma insisted. "He's gathering evidence, deposing witnesses... I am a witness," she cut off, inhaling sharply. "If he did these things to hurt us... then he's gonna have a reaction when he sees me. I need to look in his eyes. I need to know."

Maggie sighed, "I'm assuming that you'd like to speak to him as well, Athena."

"Actually no," Athena replied, her face going steely. "If I'm in the same room with that bastard, I'm going to kill him and then you'll all have to put me on trial."

* * *

The Sheriff offered his desk chair for Athena to sit in while he and Maggie watched Emma's meeting with Branson over the security footage.

"Hello Emma," he sounded calm as he greeted her.

"Hi, Mr. Branson," she answered in a shaky voice, taking a seat at the other end of the table.

"What are you doing here?"

"You know what I'm doing here," her voice went to stone.

"No, I don't," he replied easily. "They won't even tell me if Brooke's okay."

"She's fine."

Branson was quiet for a moment before he spoke again, "I know they're saying a lot of terrible things... but I did not kill anyone. I did not abduct Will – I don't even know where that knife..." he stopped, taking a breath and putting his hands away. "I'm sorry, but my lawyer.. I... I can't talk about it."

"Mr. Branson..." she trailed off, scoffing at the name. "Whatever your name is... Okay, my friends are dead, my family has been targeted, one of my best friends has been targeted and mentally tortured, and you know why."

Branson sighed, "Actually, I don't, Emma." He leaned back, looking at the security camera, "What is this!? What, do you guys think I'm gonna have some sort of, like, breakdown and confess everything to one of my students?"

Back in the Sheriff's office, Clark sighed, "He's not going for it."

Maggie replied patiently, "Give them a minute."

Seth was looking at Emma again, with a twinge of anger, "Why are you letting him use you like this?"

"I asked to do this," Emma corrected him.

"Oh, really?" he raised his hands up, as far as he could with the hand cuffs attaching them to the table. "Well, I'm a captive audience. Clearly, you have something you want to say to me."

"Did you find out the truth about who you are?" Emma questioned him. "Is that why you came to Lakewood?"

"You mean why I changed my name?" he asked.

"Yeah, that's part of it."

"I can't talk about my past, Emma."

Emma took a breath, "What about my mother?"

He still seemed lost and confused, but calm, "What about her? She's... nice. You look a lot like her."

"You said that this ends with me," Emma quoted. "So, is it over?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about," Branson insisted calmly. "But considering that I'm stuck in here... I guess you'll find out soon enough."

* * *

Athena accompanied Emma to the coffee shop to bring Noah and Audrey up to speed on Branson's secret identity. Noah looked like he was going to shit his pants, "Oh, my God. Branson? Is your... Oh, my God!"

"Hey, can you just stop saying that and help me?" Emma asked, closing her laptop with the sonogram photo of her mother's first child.

"It's a lot to take in, Em," Audrey defended.

"Exactly," Noah agreed. "Your mom, who wears cardigans and drives an SUV... had a  _baby_  with Brandon James!"

"We got it," Athena cut in. "You don't have to let the whole coffee shop know too."

"The thing that I could never figure out was why this killer was focusing on my family," Emma explained. "But... I mean, if Mr. Branson  _is_  my family, then all of this makes sense."

"What about Athena?" Audrey pointed out, gesturing to the girl next to Emma. "Why target her too?"

"Maybe his psychotic mind was triggered when I said my name was different than the name on his roster," Athena shrugged. "All I care about is finding out if it's really him so that I can breathe."

Noah gestured to Emma, "What happened when you sat across from him? I want the fava-bean-by-fava-bean recap."

Emma shrugged, "Well, he played it cool. That's why I need to know for sure."

"Brandon's son..." Noah murmured to himself. He jolted, "Bran-son. He picked that name. That redefines 'hiding in plain sight.'"

"There's still no connection between Branson and Rachel," Audrey pointed out.

"Maybe we just haven't found it yet," Emma theorized.

"The news reports don't even mention her name when they talk about the victims," Audrey scowled. "It's like they forgot that her suicide was staged."

"The Sheriff hasn't forgotten," Athena leaned forward. "If Branson did it, once he's caught with no chance of getting out, he's going to take credit. That's what serial killers do, they want to be famous. So, if he doesn't get to finish his work, you can be sure he's going to put his name on anything he did so someone else doesn't. And for all we know, he didn't have anything against Rachel like he does against Emma and her mom. She was into the film stuff like you, she filmed your freak out the night Nina was killed. It's possible that she filmed something Branson didn't want anyone else seeing."

Noah grinned, "Bi-curious and the Virgin are on it!"

Piper walked in behind them, "And the crime world trembled."

Noah turned around, "Piper, hey! Wow. Uh... We..."

Audrey pulled on his arm, "Were just leaving."

"Right, yes," Noah agreed, following her around the couch. "And, you know, just for the record, totally not..."

"Stop talking," Audrey warned.

"... a virgin," he muttered, "okay."

Piper pumped her first in the air sarcastically, "Go get 'em."

"Hey, Piper," Emma greeted when they left.

"Hey," she responded, taking a seat on the couch just vacated. "So, it's the big day. You two must be relieved."

"That's one way to put it," Athena drawled.

"The killer's behind bars, life can go back to normal," Emma shrugged, more optimistic.

"It's huge," Piper muttered.

Emma furrowed her eyebrows, "Then why do you sound so disappointed?"

"A lead I was following up on didn't pan out the way I hoped it would," Piper answered with a sigh.

"What lead?" Athena asked.

"Cassie James, Brandon James' mom," Piper revealed. "She changed her name, but I traced her through her social security number. She's living right outside of Warren."

"Did you talk to her?" Emma asked, curious.

"Well, she rambled, mostly," Piper explained. "She's a little incoherent."

"Wasn't she pretty old when she even had Brandon?" Athena questioned. "How old is she now?"

Piper nodded, "She's getting up there. I was just hoping for an interview that would tie the past and the present murders together. But it was a long shot. I had to see for myself, you know?"

"Yeah, I know," Emma nodded. "I think we might be able to help each other out."

* * *

Emma, Piper and Athena sat on a couch across from a white haired aging woman – Cassie James. Piper spoke gently from next to Emma, "Emma would like to ask you about Brandon. Is that okay?"

The woman let out an angry sigh, "You're just gonna tell a monster story. That's all they wanna hear."

Emma shook her head, "No, no. I'm not a reporter. My mother was your neighbor. She was friends with Brandon. She told me that he was very nice to her."

Something dawned on the woman's face, "Brandon was my golden-years child. I was nearly 50 when I had him. Ed said the egg was old, and that's why he had his issues. And that boy suffered so." She sighed out longingly and sadly, "Your mom was... Daisy, the little blonde. Of course. Now, I see the resemblance, yes." She chuckled, "I saw you outside, trying to get up nerve to come in and talk to me."

"Talk about what?" Emma played along, knowing the old lady was getting confused.

"Oh, you know," she said. "I kept Brandon home to keep him safe. He met you and he begged me to let him get a job with the bowling alley. 'Cause you were sex. Walking and talking. He'd do anything for you." She grew sadder, "You got him killed."

Emma stammered, "I.. I didn't."

Cassie cried, "So much pain. Why did you take him from me? Why, Daisy?"

Emma stood up, shake in her voice, "I'm so sorry, we shouldn't have bothered you."

The old lady grew more senile as she sang, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, true. Oh, he loved that song. He loved... and so did his boy. Loved that song."

Piper piqued, "Whose boy, Mrs. James?"

"Brandon's," she replied. "Brandon's son. He was here the other day. Just..."

"Brandon's son was here?" Athena finally spoke, leaning forward.

"Yes," the woman nodded. "He was so handsome."

"When was that?" Piper asked. "Do you remember his name?"

"Uh..." the woman searched for the name but it alluded her. "Steve?" She frowned and shook her head to herself, "No. Keith? No, no."

"Seth?" Piper asked.

"Yes, that's it," Cassie smiled. "Seth. That was it. Oh, he was so handsome. Just like an old-time movie star. And he wanted to know all about his daddy. He wanted to know all about Brandon. Yes, Daisy... Daisy..."

Emma was still in a shell of shock as Piper let them into her car and started driving, "That was real, right? She said that Seth is Brandon's son."

"Well, it's never gonna hold up in court, but yeah, that's..." Piper trailed off, a little shocked as well. "That's what she said."

Emma let out a small scoff of disbelief as they pulled up to her and Athena's homes, "Well, it's good enough for me." She paused, looking at Piper, "Thank you for doing this."

Piper nodded with a small smile, "Yeah. You deserve peace."

The girls said their goodbyes as Athena and Emma jumped out of the car. Emma seemed a bit excited as she gave Athena a tight hug, "Now, we can move on. It's over."

"The worst is behind us," Athena tentatively agreed, for some reason, not truly believing in it.

"Are you going to the Halloween dance?" Emma asked, still smiling.

Athena shrugged, making a face, "I don't know. Aren't High School dances lame in every state?"

"Well, I'm going," Emma said. "So are Noah and Audrey. It may not be a kegger but it's a chance to unwind and enjoy post-Branson time."

"I may dig out my costume from last year," Athena thawed to the idea. "But I can't guarantee I'll stay the whole night."

"That's okay," Emma told her. "I'm going to see if Kieran wants to go with me."

"So, you're sticking with him?" Athena asked, curious as to how that love triangle was shaking out.

Emma nodded, "I think so. I really do like him. I mean, after everything happened with Will, I know that I'll always care about him at least a little bit. But I need to move on, at least for myself. And Kieran deserves a fair chance."

"I agree," Athena smiled lightly. "I'll meet you there at – what, eight?"

"Sounds good," Emma said, walking towards her house. "See you tonight."


	11. Gut Wrenching

"I can't believe you packed this," Aunt Abby smiled up at her niece from her spot on the bed in her room as Athena tried on one of her old Halloween costumes. "You absolutely loved Hocus Pocus as a little girl. You wouldn't stop singing that Come Little Children song for weeks after you first saw it."

Athena shrugged as she checked her reflection in the full body mirror over her door, "Well, she was my favorite character."

"You look great, sweetie," Abby complimented.

"Abby..." Athena started her question, something that had been plaguing her since she saw her Aunt again. "Has mom—I mean, has Gretchen, contacted you? Since she ran off?"

Abby sighed, "No, she hasn't. But I am not about to defend her – especially to you. What she did, what she took part in, hurt a lot of people, including you. So, if she ever does contact me, I will turn her in. I hope you would be able to forgive me for that."

"I would," Athena assured her, turning to face her instead of her reflection. "I think I could forgive her, only if she took responsibility. I still can't imagine looking Alonzo in the eye, knowing what I know now. I just was curious."

"I understand," Abby smiled kindly. She took her niece's shoulders in her hands, "I know that everything that happened must get you thinking about what they could have been capable of. But just don't fall into that rabbit hole. It's all over – all of it. It's gonna be okay. Now, sit down so I can do your makeup."

Athena smiled back and sat at her vanity. Before Abby could get into her work though, there was a knock at the door. Without thinking, she called for whoever it was to come in. Sam stood awkwardly in the door.

"Oh, Sam," Athena greeted awkwardly. She stood up and pointed to Abby, "This is my Aunt."

"Abigail," her Aunt put out her hand to introduce herself.

"Nice to meet you," Sam shook her hand dubiously.

The older woman could sense something between Sam and Athena so she quietly excused herself, "I'll give you two some privacy. Just shout for me when you're ready."

"Thanks," Athena muttered as her Aunt left. She then stood awkwardly in front of Sam, not knowing what to say to him.

"You look beautiful," Sam broke the silence, complimenting her.

"Thanks," she folded her arms in front of her.

"Ian told me you were in the hospital," Sam said. "I wanted to see if you were okay. I haven't heard from you since... that day."

Athena nodded, swallowing the lump in her throat, "Well, it's over with now. Did you hear they arrested our English teacher?"

"Yeah, I heard," Sam answered.

Athena sighed, "Look, Sam, I'm sorry I haven't called or anything, I just... I can't face you. Even looking at you now, I just see you tied up in that chair with a knife at your throat."

Sam looked tortured with emotional pain in his face at her words, "I know what you mean, Athena, I do. It happens to me too. I feel like I failed you."

"That's ridiculous," Athena countered, but he continued.

"I wanted to protect you. I just couldn't. I was in that chair, and I was helpless. I couldn't do anything," he ranted. "I don't ever want to feel like that again. I want to be in a position where I can actually do something. So, I've been thinking about it, and I'm going to be leaving soon."

Athena felt heat rise up in her face, "Leaving?"

"I want to go to the police academy," he revealed. "Clark is going to help me out but there's no police academy nearby. So, I'll have to leave Lakeview. Soon, so I can get settled somewhere, because it will take a while."

"Oh," Athena responded dumbly, not knowing what else to say. "Good luck, I guess."

"I'm not running away from you," Sam swore, stepping in front of her so they were nearly touching. "I'm not running away from what happened. I'm just trying to turn it into something useful. I've been searching for a better path in life for a while and I just didn't know what I wanted. Now, I do. I want to protect people like us from the psychos out there."

"I understand," Athena muttered, trying to hide her emotions. She still cared for Sam, more than he knew, and she didn't want to lose him. But at the same time, she wanted what was best for him, and maybe that wasn't her. "I hope you have luck out there, wherever you end up."

"I'll keep in touch," Sam offered lamely. "And I'll always be there for you. No matter what."

She nodded, letting a lone tear fall down her cheek. He cupped her face in his hands and wiped away her tear with his thumb. He then leaned down and kissed her, passionately, slowly, fully, since it was quite possibly the last time he would get the chance. She immediately kissed him back, winding her arms around his neck and letting him pull her closer to him. One arm wrapped around her back and pulled her flush with his body while the other stayed cupped around her jaw, tilting her head back so he could get closer.

To her, it felt like she would explode with emotion. Sam was leaving – the same Sam she had come to trust so much. But she had to be happy for him. That was the only option for her. She had to let him go.

They pulled away, panting a little bit, pressing their foreheads together. Sam licked his lips, "God, I'm going to miss you."

"I'll miss you too," she whispered, scared of breaking the moment.

He pulled further away and kissed her forehead, giving her another hug, "I'll let you finish getting ready. I'll see you before I leave, I promise."

"You better," she warned him in a soft voice, "or I'll drop kick you."

He gave her a chuckle and kissed her cheek, "I'll see you later."

"See you later," she watched him walk out of the room, sighing to herself.

* * *

Athena walked into the surprisingly crowded school gym decked out for Halloween. She caught sight of Noah dressed as Dracula working the DJ table, "Come into the light, my children! Let me hear you scream!"

The crowd cheered for him as he played some pop song. Athena just laughed and shook her head, noticing Emma talking to her mom at the punch table. So, she made her way over, "Very topical costume, Emma."

She turned and smiled at her friend, "Hey, Athena. I could say the same to you. Who are you?"

"Sarah Sanderson," she answered, giving a little twirl with her skirt flaring. "She was my favorite character growing up."

"You look lovely, Athena," Maggie chimed in, handing her a cup of punch.

"Thanks," she took a sip. "Where's the Sheriff?"

"I don't know," Maggie replied, not worried. "He's not returning my texts. Must've gotten hung up."

"Well, that seems to run in the family," Emma added, looking at her cell phone. "Kieran is also very late."

Jake slid over to them, dressed as Peter Pan, grinning at Maggie, "Mrs. D, looking lovely, as always."

"Jake," Maggie greeted with a smile.

"One non-alcoholic drink, por favor," he requested, taking the offered drink she poured him.

Emma pulled him away to scold him for something, Athena didn't know. She bid a polite adieu to Maggie before wandering so one of the seats, not feeling in the dancing and frolicking mood. Instead, she watched Emma dance with Kieran before Audrey came up to her. "Hey," Audrey greeted her. "Nice costume."

"Thanks," Athena muttered. "Did you find anything out about Rachel and Branson?"

"No, but I found something else," Audrey said. "I logged into Rachel's cloud and looked through her old footage. She caught footage of Kieran leaving a bar with Nina – and he definitely saw her filming them together. It was right before she was killed."

"Seriously?" Athena gaped.

Audrey rose her eyebrow and nodded, "Deadly serious. Does that not just scream murder suspect to you?"

Athena felt hot all of the sudden, pulling on her dress, "But it's Branson, and they caught him. It's supposed to be over."

"I know, but Athena, they might have the wrong guy," Audrey stressed.

Athena panted a little bit, "But we talked to Brandon's mom, she said  _Seth_  was his  _son_. He went to see her, she told us his name. It has to be him. It just has to-"

While she started to hyperventilate, Emma walked over, "Hey, what's going on? What's wrong?"

"Emma, sit down," Audrey ordered gently, scooting over so Emma had room to sit between her and Athena.

Emma still looked at Athena with concern, "Athena, calm down, okay? Just breathe. Tell me what's going on."

Athena took a deep breath, "Audrey, tell her what you told me."

"Okay," Audrey sighed, pulling out her phone. "I went through Rachel's raw footage to try and find a connection to Branson. But I found this instead."

She set up her phone to play the footage of Kieran being led out of the bar by a drunk but smug Nina. Emma gaped, utterly confused, "What is this?"

"Nina and Kieran," Audrey said. "Rachel shot that. Kieran saw her do it. Em, if she was the only witness to see him with Nina..."

"Audrey, Mr. Branson is the killer, okay?" Emma cut her off. "The DNA is gonna prove that. Kieran and Nina were at a bar together, so what?"

"The night before she died," Audrey pointed out. "Emma, you can't trust him."

"Why not?" Emma retorted. "I trusted you. We've all been caught on tape doing things that look bad."

Just then Kieran walked up with a couple cups of punch, "Hey. Looking good."

Audrey glared, "Yeah, you too," and got up and left.

"I'm gonna let you two have privacy," Athena excused herself afterwards. She found Audrey sulking at a table alone. "You're really convinced of this."

Audrey nodded, her face still set into her usual stern expression, "I know you want it to be over, but..."

"But it doesn't add up," Athena finished, leaning her head in her hands.

"Exactly," Audrey agreed.

"I just don't know what to make of it," Athena sighed. "I wanted so badly for it to be Branson just so I could feel safe in my own god damn house again. But I don't think that's ever going to happen. Even if it is Kieran and we catch him and he goes away for life or death."

"Someday, you will," Audrey assured her. She caught sight of Kieran leaving the dance and saw Emma walk into a separated sitting area. "Come on," she said to Athena, pulling the other girl to check on Emma.

"Hey, are you okay?" Audrey asked Emma. "Where'd Kieran go?"

"He left," Emma groaned. "I messed things up royally."

"Or maybe he left because he did it," Audrey pointed out haughtily.

"Audrey, I know that you want justice for Rachel..." Emma started saying.

"Yeah, I do," Audrey cut her off. "And he is the only person I know of who would've wanted her gone."

"So, you want me to believe that he killed everyone else?" Emma asked, exasperated. "Nina, Tyler, Riley..."

"And Elena," Athena muttered, covering her face with her hands. She sniffed and tried to control herself and her tears. She felt Audrey hug her and whispered, "I can't keep doing this."

"Come on, let's get out of here," Audrey coaxed her. She looked at Emma, "We'll have to agree to disagree. You two have fun together. We're crashing Brooke's party and getting drunk." She pulled Athena out to her car and drove off for Brooke's house. As they were driving, Audrey asked, "Hey, is it okay if we stop by my house so I can change? You can borrow something to change in too."

Athena looked down at her dress, "Yeah that sounds good."

She borrowed some jeans and a simple black lace shirt from Audrey, keeping on her combat boots she'd been wearing under her Sarah Sanderson dress and headed to Brooke's big blowout. Thinking on it, Athena pulled out her phone and dialed her Aunt's number.

"Hello?"

"Hey..." Athena chuckled in embarrassment, "I kind of dialed you by habit. I always made it your job to tell my parents when my plans changed, didn't I?"

"I can still assume that job in Lakeview," her Aunt teased her. "What's up? Did you leave the dance?"

"Yeah, Audrey and I," she answered. "We're heading to our friend Brooke's house, she's having a party. I'll text you the address just in case."

"Just in case?" there was suspicion in Abigail's tone now. "Just in case what?"

Athena sighed, "I don't know. Just in case. Given recent events, I figured it's best to be more cautious. This isn't my old neighborhood in Portland."

"All right, well, I'll let Diana know about the change in plans if you want," Abigail offered, still sounding wary.

"Sure, that'd be great," Athena thanked her. "I'll call when we're leaving, we're in Audrey's car. And it's not like I'll be getting drunk and wild."

"You were never the drunk and wild type," she joked.

Athena laughed, "True. So, uh, I'll let you know when I'm on my way to the house, okay?"

"Okay, have fun, sweetie," her Aunt said before hanging up.

As she put her phone away, Audrey spoke, "So, you and this Aunt are pretty close, huh?"

Athena nodded, "Yeah, she and Gretchen were like my best friends growing up. Losing that was probably the hardest part of my situation. I'm glad that I at least have her back in my life."

"Good for you," Audrey said as they pulled up to Brooke's house.

They immediately sat themselves by the back door where there were a circle of seats and a fire. Audrey grabbed a beer and offered one to Athena but she shook her head, raising her wrapped up hand, "No blood thinners."

Audrey shrugged, "Sucks for you," and capsized into a lounge chair. She took a long sip, "I'm tired of this too, you know. I wanted it to be Tyler, I wanted it to be some rando, I was okay with it being Branson too. But if there's the slight possibility that he's the wrong guy and the right guy is still out there..."

"I get it," Athena assured her. "We need to get the right guy."

"Right," Audrey agreed, laying back.

Athena folded her legs and laid back as well, content to forget for a little while what was going on.

Little did either of them know that all Hell had broken out at the Halloween dance. On the big screen, Sheriff Hudson bloodied and tied up and then the Killer's masked face. Everyone had broken out into screams and had to be corralled by the police detail. Once the footage had cut out, Maggie told her daughter she was going to the station. Branson had broken out and killed a deputy. But the body looked staged. Piper was going to the Sheriff's station as well to see what she could do.

Emma found Dracula with his lap top – never not at his side – at a table. She walked up to him, "Noah... I just heard that Branson's-"

"Yeah, I heard," he told her, working on his computer. "One of those rare moments where I hate being right."

"We have to find the Sheriff," Emma stated.

He nodded emphatically, "I think I can help with that. Whoever hacked the big screen is sending a live signal through my AV system."

"Can you trace it?" Emma asked eagerly.

"I'm working on it," he told her. "Hey, have you heard from Brooke or Athena?"

Emma frowned, "No."

"'Cause I can't reach Audrey," he added, looking worried. "They may not even know what's going on."

Emma took in a shaky breath and pulled out her phone, calling Brooke's number. She didn't answer, of course. She cursed as she cut off the line and texted Brooke what was going on. She tried Athena too – no answer, sent a text. She put her phone down on the table with a frustrated huff and looked around the dance. She gasped when the phone started ringing – Unknown caller. She and Noah shared a look before she grabbed the phone and answered, "Hello?"

" _Hello, Emma,_ " the killer greeted. " _Enjoying the dance?_ "

"Let him go, okay?" Emma requested sternly. "This is about you and me."

" _Oh, I don't think so. Tonight's the big finale, Emma. Gotta make sure everybody's watching the horror show. People wanna see blood, and I'm gonna give it to 'em._ "

"I'm gonna find him," Emma warned him. "And then I'm gonna find you, you sick son of a bitch."

" _Then let's see what you've learned, Emma. Can you put all the pieces together in time to save him? Or will Daisy's heart be broken the way she broke Brandon's? It's up to you. But I can promise you one thing, it's gonna be gut-wrenching._ "

He hung up and Emma numbly pulled the phone away from her ear, looking at Noah, "He said that tonight's the big finale."

"Of course he did," Noah sarcastically cheered. "A big ill-advised Halloween dance."

"We have to find the Sheriff," Emma repeated.

"I'm trying, but all my serious gear is back at the shop," Noah told her.

Emma looked to the exit, "Okay, well, let's go. Now."

They went to leave but were stopped by a deputy. "Sorry, guys, nobody leaves."

"We need to go to the station now or the Sheriff is going to die," Emma argued with her.

"I'd listen to her," Noah backed her up.

Back at the raging party, Athena looked around, seeing people dancing and swimming. Part of her hoped Emma would show up, tell them that the DNA tests were in and Branson was her long lost brother. Or tell her that Kieran confessed and was going away for life. Anything to assure her that it was all over for real.

"You look more down than usual," Audrey broke into her thoughts.

She looked down at her lap, shrugging, "I just want this to be over. But even then, things won't be the same."

"Why don't you call that guy?" Audrey suggested. "The one we caught you macking with."

"Sam," Athena filled in the name for her. "I can't. After everything I put him through, I can't drag him in any more than he is. And besides, he's leaving town. Wants to become a cop. But can't here, I guess."

"That's noble at least," Audrey offered. "I'm sure he still cares about you though."

She nodded, "He does. I do too – about him, I mean. But it's not enough after something like this. Caring about Elena was what got her killed. It wasn't incriminating footage or to get her out of the way. It was just to get back at me, because I liked her. I feel like poison to the people I care about."

"Hey," Audrey chided her, pulling on her arm until she turned to her. "You're not poison. You're not cursed. You're not any of that. You're just a good person and this sicko punished you for that. You saved Will's life, twice. You've been Emma's voice of reason too many times to count. You haven't let this guy beat you yet – don't let him now."

Athena straightened her back, sitting tall, "You're right. I just wish I could put a bullet in his skull and beat  _him_  down."

"Night's not over yet," Audrey smirked.

* * *

Emma had removed her wig and tied her hair after Noah dropped her off at the station, finding her mother walking out of the holding cells. "Mom!"

"Emma, I told you to stay at the dance," Maggie scolded her daughter.

"Mom, the killer just called," she rushed out. "He said unless I put the pieces together fast he's gonna break Daisy's heart."

"Oh, my God," Maggie breathed, leaning against the counter. "He's gonna kill Clark."

"No, not if we can find what he wants," Emma insisted. "You said that the deputy's body looks staged, right? When he took Will, he carved a clue onto his back."

"Wait," Maggie told the men wheeling out the deputy's body, "I need to see him." She pulled away the sheet and looked over the dead man's body before she noticed something, "There's something in his mouth." She reached in with her gloved hands and started pulling out a chain, slowly, cautiously, until something came loose and she pulled out a dangling wooden carved heart with DAISY etched into it.

"What is that?" Emma gasped.

"Oh, God. Brandon made it for me," Maggie sighed. "He used to leave me gifts in the tree behind my house."

"Mom... what if that's where Clark is?"

* * *

Audrey was on her second beer when Brooke approached them, "Audrey. Athena. Hey." She took a seat next to Audrey, "Did not expect to see you here, Audrey."

"That makes two of us," Audrey deadpanned, taking another drink. She saw the mask in Brooke's hands, "Nice mask. Big plans later?"

Brooke gazed at it, "It's tempting. I mean, some psycho wears this to kill our friends, and people treat it like it's a joke."

"People are dicks," Athena offered.

"I know," Brooke agreed, looking around. "Even the ones I like. Emma bailed on me, Jake spied on me and everyone else, well, they're gone, so..." she looked between the two girls next to her, "looks like you two are officially my favorite people at this party."

"Try in the whole town," Athena teased, letting her legs lay straight in front of her.

Brooke chuckled, "So, uh, what brings you guys to my pity party?"

"I found something that looks like Emma might be sleeping with the enemy," Audrey explained, "but she didn't want to hear it. And I didn't want to see it."

"No," Brooke scoffed. "Kieran can't be the killer. He's too pretty. Although, I guess Ted Bundy kinda proved that hotness doesn't cancel out crazy."

"True," Audrey chuckled. "I just don't want to see her get hurt."

"I know," Brooke sighed. "You're just looking out for her. It's what friends do. Or, at least, they  _should_  do."

Audrey leaned forward, "You know, I kinda like this whole real human thing you got going on right now."

Brooke smiled, giving a giggle, "Are you flirting with me?"

Audrey smirked, "Oh, you wish."

The girls all laughed, Brooke adding, "Look at us, bonding."

"BFFs," Athena laughed. "Too bad I can't get drunk."

"We'll get drunk for you," Audrey offered, smiling.

Jake waltzed up to them with a bunny on his arm, "Oh, snap. Just in time for the hot girl-on-girl action."

"Jake, I don't remember inviting you to the party," Brooke glared at him.

He gave her an exaggerated pout, "Oh, come on, Brooke. I think  _The Jake_  is the party. Can I get an 'amen'?" The teens around him all shouted 'amen' and cheered and he gave her a smirk in response, walking off.

Athena balked when she saw Will walk up with a bottle of water, "Brooke, I'm sorry about him. He's being a jackass."

"Should you be here, Will?" Brooke responded, looking concerned.

He shrugged, "I'm not drinking or dancing or anything. Taking it easy. I'm just glad to be out of the hospital. Even though it practically gave my mom a heart attack." He took a seat in the empty lounge chair by Athena, "How are you feeling?"

She shrugged, "Better, I guess. I didn't get stabbed."

"It's overrated," he smiled at her.

* * *

Maggie and Emma had brought the entire Sheriff's department nearly to the old tree, seeing Clark tightly bark to the large tree. Maggie rushed up to him, looking him up and down, "Clark, it's Maggie. Untie him! Clark, can you hear me?"

Emma watched with baited breath as her mom and the other deputies cut the Sheriff loose, until the rope around his midsection came loose and his intestines spilled out. She gasped as her mother panicked and tried to put him together, save him, begging him to hold on. But his head fell limp and they knew he was gone.

She sat with her mom in the back of an ambulance, wanting to just make it better, "Mom, I'm so sorry."

"I did this," Maggie muttered, looking lost and confused. "I should've checked him more carefully. Maybe I could've stabilized him."

"Mom, the EMT said that there was nothing that you could've done," Emma insisted.

Maggie cursed, "The bastard just kept him alive so he could watch me try to save him. And then he had me kill him."

"I know," Emma murmured. "He tried to do the same thing with Will. He did it to Athena, with Elena. Mom, we can't let him win."

Maggie agreed, "No, we can't." She sighed, taking her daughter's hand, "You need to tell Kieran. He can't find out about this on the news."

"Okay, I'll find him," Emma said. "And then I'll find the psycho who did this."

Maggie's face fell, "No, you won't. I'm gonna go with Clark. I'm gonna have a deputy take you to the station. You wait right there for him." She pointed over to a deputy car. "I'll see you there."

Emma nodded and did what her mother said. Piper came up to her, "Emma."

"Piper, I can't talk right now," Emma said apologetically.

"No, I don't want you to," Piper replied, concern on her face. "I mean, after what you just saw... Anything you need, I wanna help."

"I have to go to the station with my mom," Emma told her. "I can't reach Brooke or Athena. A deputy went to Brooke's party, but I haven't heard anything."

Piper nodded along, "I'll go check, okay? You don't worry."

"Thank you," Emma felt a weight off her shoulders. "Be careful."

"You, too."

* * *

Brooke was watching Jake play tonsil hockey with the playboy bunny with a glare of disgust, "First he spies on me, then he shows up with her. Men are pigs."

"Can't really argue with that," Will shrugged it off, taking a gulp of his water.

Brooke sighed, "She's literally dumb as toast."

"Brooke, it's obvious he has nothing for her except the rise it gets out of you," Audrey pointed out.

Brooke smirked, "Yeah, well, I've been known to make things rise myself." She stood up and called over a shirtless dude and before he could answer, she shoved her tongue down his throat. She easily dismissed him to get some wine and walked over to them first.

"Nicely done," Athena answered with a grin on her face.

"Thank you," Brooke grinned back before looking to Audrey. "Do me a solid? Do not let the unwashed masses into this house."

Audrey saluted her sarcastically, "Aye, aye, captain."

Athena let out a sigh, "I'm thirsty. Where's the water?"

Audrey shrugged, "Everything seemed to be filled with booze."

"The non-alcoholic beverages are a bit hidden to promote under-aged drinking," Will quipped. He stood up and offered Athena his hand, "Come on, I'll show you where it is."

Athena bid Audrey, "Be right back," and took Will's hand, letting him lead her to an area on the other side of the house, a side patio, where a large cooler had water bottles and juice pouches.

* * *

Emma sat nervously in the police station waiting on her mom when her phone rang. Her heart stopped for a second before she saw that it was Noah's number, "Noah?"

"Well, I've almost isolated the signal," Noah told her. "And I figured out why we can't reach people. The malware doesn't just access web cams. It turns off ringers and notification."

Emma sagged, "So, they don't even know that we've been trying to contact them. Oh, my God. He's cutting us off from everyone."

"Yeah, pretty much," Noah huffed. Then she heard a little ring and him cheer, "Oh, yes. I got it! It's 1221 Sparrow Drive?"

"That's Brooke's house," Emma sighed. "Wait – everyone is there. Audrey, Jake, Athena, Brooke. And I... I just sent Piper over there to check on them."

"Tell the cops we've got him," Noah replied obviously.

Emma's phone dinged with a text and she looked, reading a message threatening her that if she called the cops, everyone would make headlines.

"Emma? Emma, do you hear me?"

Emma took a breath and stood up, answering him, "Noah, pick me up at the Sheriff's station right now."


	12. The Big Finale

"This is insane," Noah ranted as he drove himself and Emma to Brooke's large house. "We are willingly driving alone into certain danger without a police escort."

"The cops can't help us," Emma determined.

"Really?" Noah scoffed. "Because I'm pretty sure they've got, like, big-ass guns and body armor and SWAT teams. This is America."

"No, he said no cops, okay?" Emma insisted. "We have to finish this ourselves."

Noah sighed, "Well, if this is the final showdown, the killer's gonna try and take out every single one of your friends, one by one until you're the only one that's left. Because you're the survivor girl, which makes me the know-it-all sidekick—Oh, crap. I'm gonna die."

"You're not going to die," Emma stressed. "Tonight, we change the ending."

* * *

"No offense, but you don't seem to be in the party mood," Will commented as Athena dug into the cooler for a drink.

"I could say the same for you," she answered, standing up with a vitamin water. "Jake drag you here?"

"Claimed he needed a wing man and I had to get out of bed," he shrugged. "But seriously, how are you doing?"

Athena sighed, using her thumbnail to scratch the paper around her drink, "It's just one thing after another. I came here, supposed to leave demons and secrets behind me. And when I come here, and just find more. Am I supposed to move to, like, Budapest or something to leave all this behind?"

"Seems like you've been thinking about it. I don't think Budapest came out of nowhere," Will teased lightly before growing more serious. "I don't think you need to run away.  _I'm_  not. I've been fighting with my mom over it, actually."

"I'm guessing she's in favor of running away?" Athena guessed, opening her drink to take a sip.

He nodded, "She's convinced that we're in danger here. But she's calmed down since they arrested Mr. Branson. I just don't want to let her fear rule my life."

"Good shit, Pretty boy," she commented with a teasing smile.

"It may be hard to live here after all of this," he told her, putting a hand on her shoulder, "but you're not alone. We all have each other. You have your family and your Aunt. We'll all be able to live after this."

Before she could respond, they heard screams and saw people racing past them to the front of the house. Athena stayed glued to her spot but Will tried to flag people down and ask them what was going on.

Will grabbed some guy's arm, "Connor, what the Hell is going on?"

"We gotta get the Hell out of here!" he shouted, yanking his arm away and rushing with the crowd.

Athena and Will ditched their drinks to walk back to the pool, seeing Brooke just walking out with a couple of wine bottles in her hands. She turned when she heard them coming, "Where the Hell did everybody go?"

"Everyone just left," Will told her.

"Where's Audrey?" Athena asked, looking around. "Audrey!?" There was no answer, and it looked like they were the only ones around. "Something isn't right. Let's go inside."

"No arguments here," Brooke drawled, closing the door after they got inside.

There was a smack against the glass causing them to yell and turn around to see Seth Branson there, "Brooke! It's me."

"Seth?" Brooke breathed out in shock. "How did you... what are you doing here?"

"I was set up," He insisted. "Look, he was wearing a mask, and he killed the guard and he let me out. I knew that how that was gonna look, so I ran."

Will lept forward and locked the door.

He gave Will a bit of a glare before turning back to Brooke, desperate. "You have to believe me," Seth begged.

"Who set you up?" Brook asked as she trembled.

His desperation mounted as he stammered, "I don't know. I didn't have anywhere else to go. Will you please just let me in?"

"Don't," Athena cut in. "We can't trust him, he broke out of jail. This all started again when he got free. Does your dad have a gun here?"

"Yeah," she replied distractedly. "In the safe in his closet. The code is 5632."

"I know where his room is," Will offered. "I'll take you there."

"Brooke, don't let him out of your sight," Athena told the girl. "Lock all the doors. We'll be right back."

Will grabbed her hand and pulled her up the stairs, down the expansive hall until they reached a large bedroom. There were two closets unfortunately. "You check one, I got the other."

They both dug into the closets on each side of the bed. Athena immediately started tossing the clothes this way and that, not caring about making a mess, looking for the safe. She knocked shoes out of the way on the floor and didn't see it. She checked the shelf at the top and didn't see it there either.

"Found the safe," Will called to her.

She raced over to him and bent down, pressing in the combination and opening the door. She pulled out the black hand gun and the box of ammo.

"Are you sure you're gonna be able to use that with your hand?" Will asked.

"I'm actually right handed," she answered. "I just throw a stronger punch with my left. Besides, I think I'm the only one of us that knows how to use this thing."

"All right," Will let out a shaky breath. "Let's end this."

"If I really get to shoot the bastard, I'm gonna shit rainbows," Athena quipped. She opened the box of bullets and emptied the magazine, methodically sliding the ammo into it. She slid the mag into place and made sure the safety was on.

"Let's go," Will said as they walked out of the room. They paused when they heard Emma's voice calling out.

"Brooke? Jake? Athena?"

"Audrey!" that was Noah.

Will and Athena raced down the stairs and saw Emma, Noah and Kieran in the kitchen. "Emma?" Will asked.

Emma turned around, "Will, what are you doing here?"

"What is he doing here?" Athena pointed to Kieran with distaste.

"Forget about that," Emma rushed out. "Branson broke out of the station."

"Yeah, we know that," Athena cut her off. "He was just here."

"What?" Noah gaped, his jaw dropping.

"We locked him out and went to get a gun," Will added. "But where's Brooke?"

"She wasn't here when we got here," Kieran informed them.

"We need to find her," Emma said. "Noah tracked the malware here. The killer said it's the finale tonight."

Athena cocked her gun and took off the safety, "Let's look around. This place is a maze."

"We can rule out upstairs," Will offered. "We would have heard something."

"Noah, take the back porch," Kieran dictated. "Scream if you see anything."

"That won't be hard," he quipped.

"I got your back," Athena offered, brandishing the gun in her hands.

"Me too," Will stepped up.

Emma and Kieran went towards the garage from inside the house while Athena led Noah and Will to the back porch with her gun out. "Wait," Noah grabbed her arm and pointed to Audrey's book bag on the floor. "She has to still be here."

"We'll find her," Athena promised as she continued walking to the pool house.

Noah called out Audrey's name a few times before Athena told him to shut up, gesturing to a pool of red liquid outside the pool house bathroom. He started chanting, "Maybe someone just spilled their wine. Their thick, viscous red wine."

They all gasped when they saw a teen girl's dead body on the ground of the bathroom. But Noah screamed bloody murder when Audrey appeared, grabbing his shoulder.

"Noah, god," Athena groaned, failing to cover her ears because of the injured hand and the one holding the gun.

"Noah?" Emma's frantic voice reached them as he led Audrey to a chair outside the pool house.

"I'm fine," he answered.

"I'm fine too," Audrey groaned, holding her head.

"Oh, my God," Emma gasped. "What happened?"

"The killer was here," Audrey revealed. "He killed Grayson and then he came after me."

"How are you even alive?" Noah asked with disbelief.

She seemed to be in disbelief too, "I have no idea. I saw the mask and then everything went black."

"What matters is that you are alive," Will stated.

"You and Brooke are lucky to be alive," Jake pitched in, carrying a blue looking Brooke to the couch. "Leaving survivors is not exactly this guys' MO."

"I don't know," Noah babbled. "You survived. Twice."

"Yeah, being a hero," he shot back.

"God, can someone please call a doctor so I survive?" Brooke groaned.

"Cell phones are still out," Emma sighed.

"There's a land line in the kitchen," Brooke informed her helpfully.

"A land line?" Jake snorted. "What is this, 1996?"

"Okay, you guys keep watch," Emma dictated. "I'm gonna go call my mom and try and get help."

"All right," Kieran pitched in. "I'm gonna get a first aid kit." He looked at Athena with the gun in her hand, "Are you covered with that?"

She smirked, "More than."

He nodded and walked off. Audrey joined Jake in trying to warm Brooke up, asking Noah and Will to go get towels for her. They both walked off and Athena paced next to them, watching Emma on the phone in the kitchen. She watched, and Emma didn't seem happy or relieved. She seemed really scared, with a touch of anger. So, Athena could only guess she wasn't talking to her mom. She was talking to the killer.

She ducked behind the door when Emma hung up and watched as she grabbed a kitchen knife and snuck out of the house behind the others, going off into the woods. She doubled checked that the gun was good before sneaking off, knowing there was a reason Emma was going off alone – that was what he wanted.

Even though it hurt, in order to be quiet, she slipped off her boots and went in just her socks. She kept her distance but always kept Emma in her sights until she lost her. Athena cursed herself, not knowing what she was supposed to do. She kept going in the same general direction she saw Emma go until she found a truck she didn't recognize. She creeped by it, seeing no one in the driver's seat. But she saw a body lumped over in the back seat and gasped when she saw it was Branson. Fortunately, the door was open so she pulled it out and bent over his head, slapping his face lightly, "Branson, wake the fuck up."

He groaned as she started untying his hands and took tape off his mouth, "God, Athena? You have to get out of here. It's Piper – she's the killer."

"What?" Athena gasped, genuinely not expecting that twist.

"Yeah," he groaned as he got out of the car and stood on his shaky legs.

"Okay, I have to find Emma," Athena rushed out. "Run. Go to Brooke's house, she has a land line, use it to call the police."

"They won't trust me enough to get close to them," Seth protested. "You go, I'll help Emma."

"I'm not ready to give you a gun just yet," Athena denied. "Let me think..." she thought for a moment before she thought of the one thing the killer didn't know. That only she and one other person knew. "Will—tell him, he came to me in the hospital and I told him my biggest secret. He'll know what you're talking about and it'll prove that you saw me and you're telling the truth. Just go!"

Without another word he went racing away towards Brooke's house and Athena started following distant voices until she got to the docks and saw Piper there with a knife, all donned in black, mocking Emma.

"Do you wanna know how his story ends?" Piper taunted. "Branson slits Emma's throat in front of Mom before spilling Mom's guts. But not before Emma gets a good stabbing with the knife she has hidden behind her back. Yeah. Fingerprints, sis. Rookie move."

Athena could barely hold in any audible reaction to discovering that Piper had been the killer all along. That she was Emma's secret half-sibling. That she was Branson and Maggie's lovechild, bent on revenge. She had never gotten that vibe from Piper. She could feel real rage building up in her veins at true confirmation of the monster who killed Elena in front of her, who put the blame on her, who played mind games with her after everything she'd already been through.

Emma still kept a good grip on the knife she brought. Athena had stopped listening for the most part, trying to move through the brush unseen so she could get a clean shot. She nearly gave herself away when Piper sliced Emma's stomach, despite Maggie's cries. So, instead of staying hidden, she broke through the trees to the top of the dock, gesturing for Maggie and Emma to stay quiet.

"So now, Mommy dearest, you're gonna get to watch her die," Piper cackled. "But Emma, I have one more surprise for you before I open you up. And you'll never see it coming..."

"Piper!" Athena yelled, wanting to see the bitch's face.

Piper turned around, seeming only slightly shocked but still smugly grinning, "Daddy's little girl."

Athena didn't hesitate before aiming and pulling the trigger. The gunshot echoed in the stale air as Piper fell to the ground with a bullet in her forehead.

"Athena!?" Emma shrieked in disbelief. "Oh, god thank god. Thank you so much."

Athena just stood at the front of the dock, numbly staring at Piper's body. It was over. It was actually over.

For now.

Athena had talked to three deputies, willingly relinquishing the gun to them for evidence. They had her in an ambulance at first but she wasn't injured save for her hand. So, she was content to let one of the deputies drive her to the station where her family would be waiting for her. She sat by one of the cars, just watching the others breath sighs of relief. Brooke and Jake cuddled by an ambulance. Emma and Kieran reconciled. Noah and Audrey embraced.

She sat alone from it all. Until Will approached her, "Hey."

"Hey," she replied, her face still blank.

"What you did was pretty stupid, but awesome," Will complimented her. "I'm sorry that it was necessary."

Athena forced a nonchalant shrug. "She got what she wanted out of me, I guess. She made me a killer."

"You're not a killer," Will insisted, tilting her head up so she had to look at him and see that he meant it. "You saved everyone this time. All of us left alive, are alive because of you." She didn't say anything back. It was quiet and awkward for a moment before Will spoke again, "By the way, why'd you give Branson that message for me?"

"Huh?" she asked, completely forgetting what he was talking about.

"When he came to Brooke's we all threatened him to leave us alone," Will explained. "But he zeroed in on me and told me what you said – about our talk at the hospital and what you told me. I'm just wondering, why you picked that. You were much closer to Audrey and Noah than me."

"It was the first thing I could think of," she shrugged. "I knew that no one other than you could have possible known about it. I never told anyone, and I knew you wouldn't have."

"You actually trust me?" he asked, a little blown away.

"After all of this, sure, Pretty boy," she answered.

"One of these days I'm going to get you to call me by my actual name," he commented.

She shook her head, "Good luck with that."

* * *

Athena sighed as she dumped her notes from Piper and the wooden heart she'd received. She carried them out into the backyard and dumped them into the fire pit out there, throwing some gas on top before she lit them up, wanting nothing to do with any of them anymore. She pushed her ear buds in her ear and listened to Noah's first podcast.

" _Hey, guys, this is Noah Foster, local student and survivor of the Lakewood Slasher murders, guest podcasting the final chapter of Autopsy of a Crime for your former host, the now-deceased criminal mastermind behind the killings, Piper Shaw. So, having made it to the end of our very own slasher movie, I think we're all just processing what we've lost and how to move on. Staring death in the face has a way of making you want to be a little more forgiving."_

She thought of all the people she'd met in this town and her first impressions of them. She had to say most of them had proved themselves as more than she thought they were. But they had all changed, so maybe that was part of it.

" _Maybe we'll find that the loss of someone we loved may lead to the promise of someone new."_

She thought of Emma and Kieran, giving things a real shot in the wake of tragedy.

" _Maybe we'll see this as a second chance to do things differently and make a change for the good. Or to wipe the slate clean and re-invent ourselves as someone new."_

She thought of Emma's friends, Jake, Brooke, Will. They had seemed like vapid jackasses to her, but they had all turned over new leaves for themselves. And Sam – he had started as someone very special to her, giving up everything for his mother and now he was finally doing something for himself, to better his life. She was happy for him.

" _At the end of the day, we're all just grateful that it's over and that the Lakewood Slasher is dead, but there's still one thing I can't figure out. Piper Shaw confessed to her crimes in classic villain fashion, but she didn't explain who attacked her and Will Belmont in that abandoned building. I mean, sure, she could've banged herself on the head and made up the story, but Will confirmed it later. Much as I love a good Hollywood ending, I can't help but wonder, who was wearing the mask that night? Am I just over thinking it? Or is there more to come?"_

Athena wanted to forget that part. She knew that Piper could not have been working alone. But she couldn't begin to figure out who her partner was. She just wanted to move on, let the police do the investigating. She was going to be the teenager, heal and move on.

If only.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Until next time...

**Author's Note:**

> Comments or kudos would be appreciated :)


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